Movies with a strong sense of place

I watched Paris, Texas last night and was really struck by how accurately (to me) the film portrayed not just what Texas looks like, but how it feels to be in Texas. At first I couldn't put my finger on why, but I realized that it was simply because so many of the landscape and city shots are from highways and the inside of cars, and that even though I've lived in Texas most of my life, I think I've experienced a great deal of it from inside a car. There is a scene towards the end where a car takes the exact same exit off Highway 59 I used to take on the way, home. And of course those dramatic skyline shots from I-45 I'd see all the time as well.

I also just recently saw Cold Weather and I was wondering how accurately the film captures living in Portland. It certainly fits my imagination of what it must be like (and that movie will probably form my imaginative basis for "Portland" until I visit it in person).

But I think some movies, while they are strongly identified with a place, don't always qualify for what I'm looking for. Vertigo for example seems to take place in a kind of parallel dream of San Francisco, and doesn't really reflect what I feel like when I'm there (though every time I've gone it's been beautiful and sunny). But then maybe it fits 1950s SF better.

Dazed & Confused

Yeah i was thinking that one too. I think this question could also be answered for more general kinds of "places"--like a high school, or the suburbs, a farm, etc.

it would seem a crazy mistake to introduce something contentious this early in the thread, but i'll go there: tree of life. strong sense of a neighbourhood, at least - of the web that is your house and the street and the street that you go to play on as a kid.

did you ever see beeswax, ryan?, by andrew bujalski? i ask because it's in austin but shot w/o any establishment shots, really just interiors and transit and a couple of car park scenes -- i've never been to texas but it has a great sense of place to me.

think blow up is probably a text in this phenomenon. it's interesting, i'll think what else.

I think this question could also be answered for more general kinds of "places"--like a high school, or the suburbs, a farm, etc.

yeah def, i think the two are distinct & getting an actual location on film in terms of representation is something different. mm, noialbini.

beeswax, cold weather... on high alert here.

I recently drove by Smithville (where Tree of Life was shot) on a trip from Austin to Houston, and even from the highway I could recognize neighborhoods very similar to the one in the film. And yeah that movie really captures parts of Austin and Giddings really well.