Monday August 3, 2009
Discovery trail
SILVER SCREAM
By MUMTAJ BEGUM
When it comes to geography, movies can be good at putting places on the map.
BEFORE we had all these travel channels that we have now and the Internet, most of us relied on movies to give us an inkling of what other countries looked like. An early example can be found in films from India; besides the local destinations around the vast Indian landscape featuring temples, serene villages and busy cities, the song sequences in a classic Bollywood film almost always take place at an European mountain side.
For those of us who didn’t enjoy the dancing and singing, we had something more remarkable to appreciate, which was the scenery. Our own cities have also guest starred in Indian films from time to time, and still do. In turn, India has been the focal point for Western films; the most recent being the award-winning Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle. With his efficient cameraman, Boyle captured the rhythm of Mumbai’s heartbeat – almost immediately educating his viewers about this noisy city with stark images of both tragedy and celebration.
One genre that can be depended upon to take the audience to all these interesting places around the world – with just a price of a movie ticket – is the adventure-thriller. It seems heroes like James Bond, Jason Bourne and Indiana Jones have their passports ready all the time.
In Quantum Of Solace alone, Bond gave his audience glimpses of various places in Chile, Mexico, Austria, Italy, Panama, England and Spain – and Solace is the 22nd James Bond film.
Following in their footsteps was the film The International, which is an espionage tale that takes the protagonist played by Clive Owen to Germany, Italy, Turkey and New York.
Coincidentally, movies are able to highlight interesting museums to go to as well. Thanks to The International, we got to see the interior of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Never mind the place is under heavy fire in the film, the architecture is still inspiring. Similarly, in The Da Vinci Code, we got to visit Musée du Louvre in Paris, France, after-hours!
Movies also provide an idea for shopaholics. Pretty Woman – the romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts as a hooker with a heart – featured the most prominent and prestigious shopping mecca for the rich in Beverly Hills, Rodeo Drive. Not only did it feature famous shops like Mikimoto, Tiffany and other high-end labels, Pretty Woman also gave us a glimpse on how snotty sales staff at these shops can be. And, boy, the director really hit the nail on its head.
Films can be good for business too; remember the time when Tom Hanks’ character in Big stepped into the FAO Schwarz store in New York and danced to Heart & Soul and Chopsticks on the store’s large floor piano? It got a lot of people curious about the piano, and just like that, new fans were checking the store out.
Simply put, movies are great for a country’s tourism. When Peter Jackson decided to film The Lord Of The Rings trilogy in his homeland – choosing its gorgeous terrains to be Tolkien’s Middle Earth – Jackson basically put New Zealand on the map again.
Here now is an incomplete list of the movies that have given us an introduction to places that we may one day want to visit.
A tour of places in France – including Paris, Cannes, Magny-en-Vexin, Aveyron and Nice – can be seen in The Da Vinci Code, Mr Bean’s Holiday, French Kiss, Before Sunset, Amelie, The Bourne Identity, Femme Fatale, The Pink Panther, Rush Hour 3, French Connection II and Charade.
Destinations like Rome, Lazio, Vatican City, Florence, Turin in Italy are featured in Roman Holiday, The Italian Job, Angels & Demons, Talented Mr Ripley, La Dolce Vita and A Room With A View.
There are too many to mention for films located at different sites in North America but some of the outstanding ones include Bullitt (San Francisco), The Rock (San Francisco) Devil Wears Prada (New York), almost all of Woody Allen’s films are set in New York, When Harry Met Sally (New York), Taxi Driver (New York), King Kong (New York), Burn After Reading (Washington), Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas (Las Vegas), Hangover (Las Vegas), Dirty Harry (San Francisco), Ocean’s 11 (Las Vegas), Fargo (North Dakota), High Fidelity (Chicago), Public Enemies (Chicago) and Sideways (California).
In the case of Africa, movies like Blood Diamond (Mozambique and Cape Town), Tsotsi (Johannesburg), Battle Of Algiers (Algeria), Constant Gardener (Kenya and Kibera), African Queen (Uganda and the Congo), The Last King Of Scotland (Uganda), Hotel Rwanda (Johannesburg and Rwanda), Gorillas In The Mist (Kenya and Rwanda) and Out Of Africa (Kenya) are notable.
South America: The Incredible Hulk (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil), Buena Vista Social Club (Havana, Cuba), The Motorcycle Diaries (Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and Cuba) and City Of God (Brazil).
London: Bridget Jones’s Diary, Notting Hill, Four Weddings And A Funeral, Love Actually, Sliding Doors, About A Boy, Snatch, Rock N Rolla and Layer Cake.
Hong Kong: Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dead Or Alive, The Dark Knight and Push.
Japan: Lost In Translation, Fast And Furious: Tokyo Drift, Babel and The Grudge.
Thailand: The Beach, Bangkok Dangerous, Belly Of The Beast, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason.
Australia: Australia, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Crocodile Dundee and Priscilla Queen Of The Desert.
Creative licence?
MOST often than not, movies rarely reflect the truth about the actual place. In fact, locals tend to gripe about this a lot.
Canada has been used as a substitute “United States” for the longest time that it has become the norm. For the 1999 film, Anna And The King, Malaysia actually stood in for the ol’ days of Siam. Most of the shots done in Malaysia took place in the Penang and Ipoh region. It was an Academy Award nominee in 2000 for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design. Although it was supposed to be filmed in Thailand, the Thai government didn’t give approval to the story of this film – a remake of 1946 film – as there were too many inaccuracies, despite several rewrites.
Speaking of griping, when Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones landed here to make Entrapment, we couldn’t contain our excitement. Then we watched the film and started scratching our heads because Petronas Twin Towers were seen on the horizon of the Malacca river! We learned then – and maybe this is the only one good thing about Entrapment, I guess – that a film is rightly more concerned about the story and the characters than painting an accurate picture of its surroundings. For some of us, that is really a small matter as it remains exciting to see, be it, a famous tourist spot or an unknown nook, in a film.
For example, when watching Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen on the big screen, it was awesome to see the three Pyramids of Giza in Cairo and the Karnak Temple near Luxor amidst the exciting action sequences. Is it really important to know at that moment that the Karnak Temple is actually 50 minutes away by flight from Cairo? Heck, no! You’d find that out when you make your way to Egypt or to many of the wonderful locations you do go to after seeing it on a film first.
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