I went to a free lecture on the history of movies in New York last night. Although moving picture technology was invented in NY (thank you History of NY documentary), once films added audio the production of most movies moved to Hollywood.
At the time, there were a ton of roadblocks preventing filmakers from making movies in the city so even some movies about the city were made on soundstages in Hollywood. There was a run of Oscar winning movies filmed in NY which spurred the mayor's office to streamline the process of granting permits to film in the city. Which then led to a doubling of films being shot in NY that year compared to the last 20 years of filmmaking.
The speaker edited a book of images taken from movies and TV shows filmed in NY. If you know anyone in NY and want to get them a coffee table book, I recommend this one.
He also mentioned how films made about NY in the 80s painted a very dark picture about New York as a dangerous, dirty, scary place which was how the city was sold to the rest of the country. But movies in the 90s and within the last decade have gone a long way to show the city in a nice light: You've Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, Searching for Bobby Fischer, and...others that I don't remember because I've been blinded by the prettiness of the first two.
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