10 Top Film Locations Around the World

This Special Edition post highlights 10 great cities and some of the  most famous film locations past and present.  These are all great cities made even more enjoyable when connecting film making and discovery travel together.

New York, New York 

P1070035
NYC from the Harbor 2015
  1. Take a Harbor Cruise or the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty like Funny Girl, Barbara Streisand.
  2. Walk the streets of Little Italy and imagine the 1973 Mean Streets of Robert De Nero, Directed by Martin Scorsese.
  3. Imagine King Kong hanging from the top of the Empire State Building, then window shop at Tiffany & Co. (5th Avenue and 58th Street).
  4. On your way uptown, check out the tenements of West Side Story (West 109th Street).

Hollywood, California  

Photo: history.com
Photo: history.com
  1. Step into the footsteps of the stars at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.  Better yet, catch a movie and check out the lavish interior.
  2. Check out the Shrine Auditorium, home of the Oscars.
  3. Stroll the Hollywood Forever Cemetery where Rudolph Valentino and many other early movie stars are buried.  The cemetery doubles as a movie theater in the summer months.
  4. Check out one of the many tours of the stars and the studios.  And then rent the classic Sunset Boulevard.

Monument Valley, Arizona/Utah

monument
Photo: pbase.com
  1. This valley, now part of the Navajo tribal park was the set for numerous cowboy movies of the 20’s and 30’s.  Stagecoach was filmed here.
  2. Visit during sunrise and/or sunset for the shades of pink and orange off the cliffs and canyons.
  3. Visit Goulding Trading Post, just west of the park.  Its founder convinced John Ford to shoot movies here.

Mumbai, India

Above the Main Square 1989
Above the Market Square 1989
  1. The Center of Bollywood is in the Juhu district of Mumbai.  Over 200 films are made here every year.  Each includes the formula of song, dance and melodrama.
  2. Tours/trips to one of the big studios, KR or Filmistan, will let you see the process first hand.

Tokyo, Japan

P1070234
Tokyo Harbor with Mt. Fuji 2015
  1. Take a taxi to the Park Hyatt Hotel for incredible views of Tokyo and was the set for Lost in Translation with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johannson.
  2. Make a reservation at Gonpachi (at Nishi-Azabu) for dinner like Uma Thurman in Terantino’s Kill Bill.  
  3. The New Otani Inn was SPECTRE Headquarters in Sean Connery’s You Only Live Twice.

Queenstown, New Zealand

Golden Bay, New Zealand 2004
  1. Frodo (Elijah Wood), Gandolf (Ian McKellen) and Saruman (Christopher Lee) hailed from Middle Earth in The Lord of the Rings series.
  2. See the beauty of Lake Wakatipu, home of Galadriel, played by Cate Blanchett.
  3. The Southern Alps where many of the scenes were shot for the much of the Lord of the Rings films.

Rome, Italy

P1090849
Vatican, Rome 2016
  1. The Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Castel Sant’Angelo and St. Peter’s were featured in Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code movies.
  2. And who can forget Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck in Fellini’s Roma and Roman Holiday?

Paris, France

P1010550
On the Bank of the River Seine, Paris 2007
  1. The birth of the 1960s New Wave started when Jean-Paul Belmonde roamed the bars of St. Germain and the Champs Elysees in the film Breathless.
  2. Nicole Kidman and Ewen McGregor fell in love at the Moulin Rouge, a favorite movie of ours.
  3. You still can have coffee and a meal at the cafe made famous by Audrey Tautou in the now classic Amelie.

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague
Photo: tripadvisor.com
  1. Wesley Snipes chased Vampires through the streets of old town in Blade II.
  2. Tom Cruise watches a car explode from the Charles Bridge in Mission Impossible.
  3. The same Charles Bridge was filmed during a rain storm with Barbra Streisand in Yentl.
  4. Tom Hulce played Mozart, was wed and buried at the Church of Saint Giles in Amadeus.

London, U.K.

St. Paul's from the Tate Modern 2016
St. Paul’s from the Tate Modern 2016
  1. Walk the street of Nothing Hill where Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant fell in love.
  2. Grab a bite at the cafe or the excellent Restaurant at the Tate Modern like Renee Zellweger in Bridget Jones Diary.
  3. Cross the Thames to St. Barthomew-the-Great, Smithfield where Joseph Finnes prayed in Shakespeare in Love.
  4. Harry Potter fans will want to visit the reptile house at the zoo and platform 9-3/4, filmed on real life platform 4 at the massive Kings Cross Station.

Note:  We have visited all of these cites and most of these locations over the years.  We rekindled many great memories while conducting research for this post.  J&J

3 thoughts on “10 Top Film Locations Around the World”

  1. You could include Venice. I saw a movie where the famous actress walked away from a guy and into a no exit pedestrian way.

    I recognized that I had walked into the exact same place. No GPS when we were there.

    Thank you for all the interesting travel and other posts.

  2. OH my! And you were there! Love the photo from Paris, complete with tam, altho I see you travel other places with it, too. Very dapper! You guys are a font of info! Love love love!!!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.