For as long as it’s been an art form, cinema has been supremely influential over almost every aspect of our lives. From clothes (the private eye trench coat and Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress) to food (The Godfather pasta sauce and Pulp Fiction’s Big Kahuna Burger/five dollar milkshake) and even the way we speak, it’s possibly the only thing that can exert a hold over an entire population.
In a similar vein, a widely-seen film can do wonders (or the opposite) for the tourist trade of a certain city or area. For instance, Danny Boyle’s film The Beach ensured that a remote area of Thailand would always have a steady stream of fans flocking to see the cove where a lot of the action takes place. What other films are there that might feature interesting places to go to on your next holiday? Let’s have a look at a few…
In Bruges (Bruges)
Where else would you find racist dwarves, obnoxious Canadians and Ralph Fiennes running around swearing like a dockhand? With cobbled streets, church towers and courtyards on every corner, Bruges is one of Europe’s best-preserved medieval towns – it really is like a fairytale, despite Ray (Colin Farrell) doing his best to disparage it throughout the course of the film that takes its name from the city.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (French Riviera)
While Michael Caine and Steve Martin threaten to steal the show from the stunning scenery of conman caper Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, they never completely manage it, and considering it’s the French Riviera, who can really blame them? The playground of the rich is blue-skied and crystal-watered, and though we know that it’s an exclusive club that we need millions to get into, the film still makes us want to visit.
Angels & Demons (Rome)
The brilliant thing about film adaptations of Dan Brown’s books, as far as the tourist boards of the cities they’re set in are concerned, is that they basically act as fiction-based travelogues for their settings. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Angels & Demons, a thriller that sees Brown’s hero, Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks), running all over Rome in a bid to uncover an Illuminati conspiracy to destroy Vatican City with stolen antimatter. It’s ridiculous, but it whets the traveller’s appetite for adventure with visits to the Santa Maria della Vittoria and Castel Sant’Angelo away from the standard Colosseum and Circus Maximus hotspots. Will it get you in the mood for an Italian romance?
Casablanca (Casablanca)
Although it was entirely shot on a soundstage (with the exception of the arrival of Nazi leader Major Strasser) at the Warner Brothers studio lot, the exterior scenes of Casablanca give a good indication of the crowded hustle and bustle of towns throughout Northern Africa – although the film is over seventy years old, it’s indicative of the look and feel of towns in countries like Morocco, Turkey, Egypt and Algeria even now.
Y Tu Mamá También (Mexico)
When you travel, you’ll invariably come face-to-face with the harsh realities of poverty and hardship prevalent throughout almost every country, moments that Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También portrays throughout the course of the privileged Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch’s (Diego Luna) road trip through Mexico. Hedonistic and nostalgic, Cuarón puts a different spin on the standard road trip movie, an indication of the subversion and inventiveness he would later display in Children of Men and Gravity. The film will also make you realise there’s a different side to Mexico than drug dealers and other-side-of-the-border escapades.
Up (Venezuela)
One of the greatest animated films ever made, Up, is odd in that it isn’t really set in an actual place – though Venezuela is where most of the action takes place, Paradise Falls, the specific location, was conceived by Pixar and inspired by the country’s Angel Falls. It’s the spirit of the location that should be inspiring for travellers, with lush jungle, the aforementioned waterfall and varied wildlife all available in Venezuela and South America as a whole.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (New Zealand)
In an ensemble cast, there’s no star – one could easily peg Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen or Ian McKellen as the star, but in the absence of a clear winner, we’re going to say that the star is the New Zealand landscape that brings JRR Tolkien’s Middle-Earth to life. From majestic mountains to rolling plains, woodland glades to rushing rivers and languid lakes, the variety of New Zealand’s natural features is laid out in glorious high-definition and has attracted millions of tourists since the first film was released in 2001.
Once you’ve decided where you’re going to go, you’ll want to ensure you end up with the most cost-effective deal possible – there’s nothing better than knowing you’ve saved hundreds on a holiday that many others will have paid full price for! Why not conduct a holiday comparison with Easyvoyage to see how much you can save?