A Man Scours San Francisco for the Traces of Film Noir | Hacker News Reader

A Man Scours San Francisco for the Traces of Film Noir

citylab.com

63 pointsqzervaas19 comments

Film locations can be iconic. In a motel room, bored and channel-surfing, I saw a '70s movie on a beach with a distinctive headland in the distance and a large boulder jutting out of the surf. Next channel, old B&W movie, same beach, this time a suicide wading out into the surf by the same rock. Both scenes playing at the same time on adjacent channels.

Did you stumble on to the final scene of "A Star is Born"? I wonder how many films end with people wading in to the surf to take their own life...

The TV show the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin did that on Swanage beach.

Fans of The Prisoner (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner) have been doing this for years: http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/locationsguide.htm

A scene from The Prisoner was shot in the GEC Marconi building in Borehamwood (now demolished). This was where the Elliott 803 computer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_803) was designed and built. Tony Hoare worked there.

San Francisco is a great place to do this because it looks basically the same as it did in the 60s. Whether this is a good or bad thing is up to other people to debate.

San Francisco is also a great place to catch screenings of classic film noir in the historic Castro Theatre (complete with pipe organ): http://www.noircity.com/

Another place to experience old and strange films in SF is at one of the small "Strange Sinema" screenings at Oddball Films[1,2]. It's not so much a theater as it is a film archive near 18th St with projector room and a few couches. I found my favorite tamale restaurant thanks to the proprietor, and have seen an eclectic and memorable set of films at the screenings. Everything from Jacques Cousteau-like underwater films to Cold War-era Air Force test footage. It's weird authentic SF at its best. Be sure to chat with Stephen afterward.

1. https://vimeo.com/176204115#t=7s

2. https://oddballfilms.blogspot.com/

A lot of the locations in Hitchcock's Vertigo look much the same today. Its much different in NYC as these images of Taxi Driver locations show: http://www.scoutingny.com/new-york-youve-changed-taxi-driver...

I like finding filming locations in modern movies with minimal evidence, like the names from street signs, etc. It's kind of interesting how often they totally fake filming locations. Lots of movies supposedly set in the U.S. are filmed in Canada for some reason, and I just watched one the other day that was supposed to be in Seattle but it was filmed in some town in the midwest. (They had a Seattle skyline scene at one point that was about as convincing as the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz.)

Bonus, if you're into that sort of thing: https://geoguessr.com/ (Dropped somewhere in the world at random in Google Street View, how accurately can you figure out where you are?)

That website is a very cool 'game' haha I like it a lot :)

Geoguessr is a lot of fun. It's great with a few coworkers and a conference room projector for wasting a bit of time at the end of the day, too.

If you're a Harold and Maude fan check out the following. (I helped out in a small way because I'm something of a map geek and had a rental car one weekend).

http://www.boffo.us/haroldandmaude/

I highly encourage everyone that is interested in this type of detective work to read Pop Spots http://www.popspotsnyc.com/

Bob Egan goes through such amazing detail to pinpoint exact location of still photographs, movie frames and even paintings.

As a die hard Noir buff, I love that there is someone who has retired from the SV scene and now dedicates their time to not just noir film history, but specifically as it pertains to San Francisco.

Reminds me a lot of the documentary "LA Plays Itself":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hYg01uqz9U

"Los Angeles Plays Itself" - Thom Andersen's 2003 documentary, can be found on Youtube (paid), and is essential viewing IMHO.

"L.A. Plays Itself" - Fred Halsted's 1972 avant-garde gay porn film, the only hardcore work in the permanent collection of the MOMA, referenced in "Los Angeles Plays Itself".

Sorry, had to put that in.

Technically it's "Los Angeles Plays Itself".

This may seem pedantic, but it's a point made in the movie itself: "The acronym functions here as a slightly derisive diminutive. Now it’s become second nature, even to people who live here. Maybe we adopted it as a way of immunizing ourselves against the implicit scorn, but it still makes me cringe. Only a city with an inferiority complex would allow it."

(Also it turns out there was already a film called "LA Plays Itself") http://www.standardhotels.com/culture/whatever-you-do-dont-c...

Thanks for the quote. Just found the entire transcript: http://newfilmkritik.de/archiv/2005-03/los-angeles-plays-its...

It's a good read :)

One of the best documentaries I've ever seen. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.

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