"Essays exploring key directors, themes, and historical periods are complemented by reviews of important scenes that offer particular insignt into London's relationship to cinema."--Back cover.

Outside of the capital London, no other British city has attracted more film-makers than Liverpool. Sometimes standing in for London, New York, Chicago, Paris, Rome or Moscow, and sometimes playing itself – or a version of its own past in Beatles biopics – Liverpool is an adaptable filmic backdrop that has attracted film-makers to its ports for decades. A place of passion, humour and pride, Liverpool evokes caverns and cathedrals, ferries and football grounds; it is a city so vivid we see it clearly even if we’ve never been there. From the earliest makers of moving images – among them the Mitchell & Kenyon film company, the Lumière brothers and pioneering early cinematographer Claude Friese-Greene – who preserved the city, the river, the docks, the streets and the people, Liverpool has endured as a cinematic destination. This collection celebrates that survival instinct and will be welcomed by enthusiasts of British cities, films and culture.

"Essays exploring key directors, themes, and historical periods are complemented by reviews of important scenes that offer particular insignt into London's relationship to cinema."--Back cover.

For all those fans who wonder where their favorite movies were filmed or what it would be like to visit the sites, this book is the ultimate resource. It features information on blockbuster, cult, and art house favorites from Saturday Night Fever to Men in Black, from Belle du Jour to Ben Hur. The entries for individual films include brief descriptions of key scenes shot at the location, travel details, photographs, film stills, behind-the-scenes information, and insights as to what these places are really like. Also included are full-color features on major sites of special interest—Vertigo’s San Francisco, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, and a world Star Wars tour, among others—along with more obscure locations that have become sought-after travel destinations simply because of their connection to the movies.

Celebrating Shanghai’s rich cinematic history, the films covered here represent a lengthy time period, from the first Golden Age of Chinese Cinema in the 1930s to the city’s status as an international production hub in 2013. Given the enduring status of Shanghai as the 'Paris of the East,' World Film Locations: Shanghai emphasizes the city’s cosmopolitan glamour through locations that are steeped in cinematic exoticism, while also probing the reality behind the image by investigating its backstreets and residential zones. To facilitate this study of Shanghai’s dual identity through reference to film locations, the book includes films from both the commercial and independent sectors, with a balance between images captured by local filmmakers and the visions of Western directors who have also utilized the city for their projects. With numerous essays that reflect Shanghai’s relationship to film and scene reviews of such iconic titles as Street Angel, Temptress Moon, Kung Fu Hustle, and Skyfall, World Film Locations: Shanghai is essential reading for all scholars of China’s urban culture.

A filmic guidebook of the Greek capital, World Film Locations: Athens takes readers to film locations in the central historical district with excursions to the periphery of Athens – popular neighbourhoods, poor suburbs and slums often represented in postwar neorealist films – and then on to garden cities and upper class suburbs, especially those preferred by the auteurs of the 1970s. Of course, no Grecian vacation would be complete without a visit to the sea, and summer resorts, hotels and beaches near Athens are frequent backdrops for international productions. However, more recent economic strife has emptied city neighbourhoods, created urban violence and caused an increase in riots in the Mediterranean city, and representations of this on film are juxtaposed with images of the eternal and idyllic city. Featuring both Greek and foreign productions from various genres and historical periods, World Film Locations: Athens ultimately works to establish connections between the various aesthetics of dominant representations of Athens.

We ll always have Paris, Humphrey Bogart assures Ingrid Bergman in the oft-quoted farewell scene from "Casablanca" in which Bogart s character, hard-hearted restaurateur Rick Blaine, bids former lover Ilsa Lund goodbye. The backdrop against which they first fell in love, Paris later serves as a reminder of their deep mutual longings. And with a host of different realizations by filmmakers from Philip Kaufman to Julien Leclercq to Woody Allen, there is no question that Paris has likewise endured in the memories of cinephiles worldwide."World Film Locations: Paris "takes readers on an unforgettable tour of the City of Lights past and present through the many films that have been set there. Along the way, we revisit iconic tourist sites from the Eiffel Tower whose stairs and crossbars inspired more than one famous chase scene to the Moulin Rouge overlooking the famously seedy Place Pigalle. Other films explore lesser-known quartiers usually tucked away from the tourist s admiring gaze. Handsomely illustrated with full-color film stills and contemporary photographs, more than fifty scenes are individually considered with special attention to their use of Paris s topography as it intersects with characters, narrative, and plot. A host of important genres and cinematic movements are featured, including poetic realism, the New Wave, cinema-verite, the literary works of the Left Bank Group, and Luc Besson s slickly stylized cinema du look. Meanwhile, essays foreground contributions from Francophone African directors and emigre filmmakers.For centuries, Paris has reigned over the popular imagination. For those who have visited or those who have only imagined it through art, literature, and film, "World Film Locations: Paris "presents a wonder-filled cinematic exploration of the mythical city that fans of French cinema and new initiates will appreciate."