MISTRYMAN REVIEWS / ARTICLE

Places That Feel Like the Movies

Six destinations, three eras: a classic, an ’80s–’90s pick and a modern film for every stop.

3 min read

A place changes depending on who is filming it, and when. These six destinations each get three films: one from 1960–1979, one from 1980–1999 and one from 2000–2020. Watch them in that order and look at what changes: the pace, the light, the people a city makes room for. These are filming connections, not a claim that every scene was made in the place where its story unfolds.

New York — glamour, sleepless nights and a city closing in

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) turns Fifth Avenue into a promise of a life just out of reach. After Hours (1985) makes a night in SoHo feel like a series of increasingly bad exits. Good Time (2017) pushes through New York with the nervous energy of someone who cannot afford to stop. Same city, three very different reasons to keep moving.

Breakfast at Tiffany's1961

THE MISTRYMAN TAKE
Moon river wow
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After Hours1985

THE MISTRYMAN TAKE
Very original.
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Good Time2017

THE MISTRYMAN TAKE
Great thriller, was on the edge of my seat
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Los Angeles — the dream, the distance and the rear-view mirror

Chinatown (1974) finds rot beneath the sunshine, with LA’s streets and water politics giving the mystery its shape. Heat (1995) makes the city’s vast distances feel personal: bright public spaces and empty private lives. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) slows down and lets driving, music and familiar storefronts become the attraction. Put these together for three very different ways of looking at LA.

Chinatown1974

THE MISTRYMAN TAKE
Brilliant
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Heat1995

THE MISTRYMAN TAKE
This is like if ye and jay made an album in 2026.
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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood2019

Morocco — three eras of building another world

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) filmed partly in Morocco, alongside major locations in Jordan and Spain. The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) uses Moroccan landscapes for a more intimate, unsettled biblical world. Inception (2010) turns Tangier into the Mombasa of its chase sequence. The interesting connection is transformation: a real place helping create somewhere else, without all three films needing the same sense of scale.

Lawrence of Arabia1962

THE MISTRYMAN TAKE
Wow unreal, same feeling I had when watching Barry Lyndon, I was captivated.
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The Last Temptation of Christ1988

Inception2010

Italy — the life you want, and what it costs

The Godfather (1972) uses Sicilian locations including Savoca and Forza d’Agrò to give Michael’s time away a different rhythm. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) makes the coast dangerously attractive, with Ischia and Procida helping create fictional Mongibello. The Great Beauty (2013) drifts through Rome’s terraces and palazzos, wondering what remains when the party wears off. Beauty does a different job in each: roots, temptation and reflection.

The Godfather1972

The Talented Mr. Ripley1999

THE MISTRYMAN TAKE
Great rewatch.
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The Great Beauty2013

Tokyo — style, appetite and a room above the city

Tokyo Drifter (1966) turns its gangster world into bold colour and theatrical spaces; it is a stylised Tokyo, rather than a literal street guide. Tampopo (1985) brings the city down to the scale of a noodle shop, where appetite can start a whole adventure. Lost in Translation (2003) looks out from the Park Hyatt Tokyo and makes a huge city feel strangely distant. Watch how the setting changes with what each character needs from it.

Tokyo Drifter1966

Tampopo1985

Lost in Translation2003

Paris — charm, suspicion and the wish to live in another time

Charade (1963) gives Paris glamour with a reason to distrust the handsome stranger. Frantic (1988) makes the city unfamiliar and difficult to read, following an American who cannot find his wife. Midnight in Paris (2011) turns walking after dark into an escape into an imagined past. Three decades of difference can change a romantic setting into a nightmare, then into a fantasy.