An extraordinarily beautiful city that has been celebrated, criticized, and studied in many films, San Francisco is both fragile and robust, at once a site of devastation caused by 1906 earthquake but also a symbol of indomitability in its effort to rebuild afterwards. Its beauty, both natural and manmade, has provided filmmakers with an iconic backdrop since the 1890s, and this guidebook offers an exciting tour through the film scenes and film locations that have made San Francisco irresistible to audiences and auteurs alike. Gathering more than forty short pieces on specific scenes from San Franciscan films, this book includes essays on topics that dominate the history of filmmaking in the city, from depictions of the Golden Gate Bridge, to the movies Alfred Hitchcock, to the car chases that seem to be mandatory features of any thriller shot there. Some of America’s most famous movies—from Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark to Hitchcock’s Vertigo to Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry —are celebrated alongside smaller movies and documentaries, such as The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, to paint a complete picture of San Francisco in film. A range of expert contributors, including several members of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, discuss a range of films from many genres and decades, from nineteenth-century silents to twentieth-century blockbusters Audiences across the world, as well as many of the world’s greatest film directors—including Buster Keaton, Orson Welles, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher, and Steven Soderbergh—have been seduced by San Francisco. This book is the ideal escape to the city by the bay for arm chair travelers and cinephiles alike.

Exploring a city famous for its role in film settings and television backdrops, this book is a comprehensive guide to thousands of movie and television locations in the San Francisco Bay area. From the cement steps in Alta Plaza Park as featured in Barbra Streisand's What's Up, Doc? to the actual nightclub of Frank Sinatra's character in Pal Joey and the haunts of Don Johnson's Nash Bridges, this jaunty expedition around San Francisco and the surrounding bay explores an area featured in more than 1,500 movies. Easy-to-follow maps identify significant historical film sites, locations for classic and contemporary films, movie palaces, and production companies, making this travel guide a best bet for planning a tour of locales associated with Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock, as well as current film-makers such as George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, and Clint Eastwood.

A celebration of the San Francisco films of Alfred Hitchcock, this book examines the master director's familiarity with Northern California and how it greatly influenced his decision to use the Bay Area location in several of his landmark motion pictures. More importantly, this book shows how San Francisco was often the source of inspiration for many of these same cinema classics. The masterpieces that are examined are Shadow of a Doubt, Vertigo, The Birds, Suspicion, Psycho, and Family Plot. Hitchcock fans are taken on a journey around the Bay Area, experiencing cinematographic intrigue and learning about Bay Area history, lore, and the timeless elegance of San Francisco and its picturesque surroundings. Hundreds of historical and contemporary photos are included, with an emphasis on those buildings and businesses that no longer exist.--From publisher description.

Prague, the 'Hollywood of the East', has played an important role in the history of cinema and World Film Locations: Prague traverses the city’s topography to examine an internationally diverse range of movies made in the Czech capital: landmark early films such as Ecstasy, controversial due to the female nudity that catapulted Hedy Lamarr into stardom in the United States; Steven Soderbergh’s biopic Kafka, starring Jeremy Irons; adaptations of Kafka’s literary works such as The Trial, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter and starring Anthony Hopkins; and action blockbusters like Mission Impossible, The Bourne Identity and Casino Royale. Exploring legendary Prague landmarks as they appear onscreen—including the Charles Bridge, Old Town, Malà Strana, Liechtenstein Palace, Wenceslas Square and Prague Castle – the book also discusses the intersection of the capital city and its cinematic representations; Prague and the Czech New Wave; the iconic Barrandov Studios; and the impact of political events such as the Prague Spring, the Soviet Invasion of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution on the city’s film industry. An invaluable resource for scholars, students and aficionados of film and cinematic psychogeography, this collection will be heralded by students of East European literary, cultural and sociopolitical history.

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.

This revised and expanded edition of Eddie Muller's Dark City is a film noir lover's bible, taking readers on a tour of the urban landscape of the grim and gritty genre in a definitive, highly illustrated volume. Dark Cityexpands with new chapters and a fresh collection of restored photos that illustrate the mythic landscape of the imagination. It's a place where the men and women who created film noir often find themselves dangling from the same sinister heights as the silver-screen avatars to whom they gave life. Eddie Muller, host of Turner Classic Movies' Noir Alley, takes readers on a spellbinding trip through treacherous terrain: Hollywood in the post-World War II years, where art, politics, scandal, style -- and brilliant craftsmanship -- produced a new approach to moviemaking, and a new type of cultural mythology.