From heartfelt dramas to gripping thrillers, these movies have something to offer every cinema enthusiast, and reveal a lot about the City by the Bay\u2019s vibrant culture and rich history.<\/p>\n
Whether you\u2019re a Frisco native looking to relive some of your favorite locales on the big screen or just a film fan catching up on a few classics you might have missed, let this chronological roundup take you on a tour of Fog City from the Golden Age to the 21st century.<\/p>\n
1. San Francisco<\/em> (1936)<\/h2>\nShot in black and white, this 1936 musical drama directed by W.S. Van Dyke follows the everyday life of saloon performer Mary Blake (Jeanette MacDonald)\u2014until the 1906 San Francisco earthquake strikes.<\/p>\n
The film\u2019s theme tune, sung by MacDonald, was officially inaugurated as one of two official city songs in 1984.<\/p>\n
San Francisco <\/em>has often been screened at the famous Castro Theatre on April 18, the anniversary of the earthquake.<\/p>\n![\"This](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEjRpw3de85t8FTtDUa830IrAKFK3p3dIaW945JEB4piVxhuiwypDRG2FCAbadlzYEyWsijQ6ycLpyuvwyg0Z8MC7Wru8ls1WJbuG0KzQno_Yc5Rnmx8_SHoXqvd3pfh5dQQNAxWCSTj_NVC\/s768\/SanFrancisco01.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
2. Vertigo<\/em> (1958)<\/h2>\nDirector Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s quintessential psychological thriller almost took place in Paris, as that was the setting for D\u2019entre les morts<\/em>, the French novel by Boileau-Narcejac that provided the movie\u2019s source material.<\/p>\nHitchcock changed the location to the City by the Bay because of its unique terrain and steep geography.<\/p>\n
Vertigo<\/em> was the first film to use the dolly zoom, an effect in which the camera zooms in while moving backward, to provide a deliciously \u201cvertiginous\u201d experience echoing main character John “Scottie” Ferguson\u2019s (James Stewart) fear of heights.<\/p>\nIn 1996, a restored version of the film premiered at the Castro Theatre, with star Kim Novak and Hitchcock\u2019s daughter, Patricia, in attendance.<\/p>\n
3. Psych-Out<\/em> (1968)<\/h2>\nThe historic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood features heavily in this drug-fueled psychedelic film, which chronicles hippie life during the late 1960s.<\/p>\n
The movie follows a deaf runaway named Jenny (Susan Strasberg) through underground band venues, Haight Street coffee shops, hippie communes, and of course, iconic spots like the Golden Gate Bridge.<\/p>\n
It also features actor Jack Nicholson, right before his breakthrough role in 1969 with Easy Rider<\/em>.<\/p>\nAlthough it\u2019s one of the few movies to capture the city\u2019s once-thriving counterculture, it actually was intended as a cautionary tale and carries a distinctly anti-drug message thanks to producer Dick Clark.<\/p>\n
In his memoir Rock, Roll & Remember<\/em>, Clark wrote: \u201cI\u2019d seen the kids in the hippie communities living in awful squalor. In the film, you see scenes where … they\u2019re all stoned-out having a great time.<\/p>\nThen there\u2019s the morning-after scene\u2014the garbage lying around, a roach crawling through the food, a half-eaten orange crawling with maggots.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.treeiq.biz\/site_113\/2026\/06\/500695088-1109971734492660-2238229527542497993-n-a53948c5-e17f-4334-8a93-ad0931d2ea10.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
4. Bullitt<\/em> (1968)<\/h2>\nIn this neo-noir thriller, detective Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is tasked with protecting mobster and informant Johnny Ross (Felice Orlandi) as a witness, when suddenly Ross is killed.<\/p>\n
What follows isn\u2019t just the makings of one of the most epochal action films of the 20th century\u2014Bullitt <\/em>is also a veritable tour through the streets of San Francisco.<\/p>\nThe scene that put this film on the map is a thrilling car chase around the city. Shot over three weeks, it runs for almost 11 minutes, with speeds at times reaching up to 110 mph.<\/p>\n
To demonstrate how impossible it would be to recreate in real-life, one fan created a Google Map that shows the great distance between the featured locations.<\/p>\n
5. Escape From Alcatraz<\/em> (1979)<\/h2>\nThis 1979 film is based on the true story of a group of prisoners who attempted to escape from the eponymous maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island in 1962.<\/p>\n
Directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, it succeeds Dirty Harry<\/em> (also set in San Francisco) as the fifth and final collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood.<\/p>\nAlcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed in 1963, a year after the events depicted in the film.<\/p>\n
For onsite shooting, producers connected 15 miles of cable from San Francisco to bring electricity to the prison and made $500,000 worth of restorations to the buildings to emulate historical conditions.<\/p>\n
![\"Escape](\"https:\/\/play-lh.googleusercontent.com\/vmm_5ZsWwuffAAU1e6u1v18zPvKXmmnnBqpXkJv-r-YN3dHdIqZBCUjrL2HeVRy7EbzIXJnN7g8orFt_tNI\")
<\/p>\n
6. Pacific Heights<\/em> (1990)<\/h2>\nDubbed \u201ca horror film for yuppies\u201d by film critic Roger Ebert, Pacific Heights<\/em> takes bad tenant anxieties to the extreme in a city known for its excellent tenant protections.<\/p>\nIn it, a couple (played by Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith) purchase a gorgeous Victorian they can\u2019t afford in one of the city\u2019s ritziest neighborhoods, with the intention of renting out the building\u2019s smaller units downstairs.<\/p>\n
What follows is a gory struggle involving legal battles, stalking, roach infestations, identity theft, and a steady dose of violence\u2014mostly at the hands of a wonderfully villainous Michael Keaton.<\/p>\n
Despite the film\u2019s title and setting, the house used for filming is actually located in Potrero Hill, a working-class neighborhood that was considered unfashionable at the time.<\/p>\n
7. The Joy Luck Club <\/em>(1993)<\/h2>\nAmy Tan\u2019s The Joy Luck Club<\/em> is considered was one of the most seminal works in Asian American literature of the 20th century.<\/p>\nIt was adapted for the silver screen by Tan and Ronald Bass, and at the film\u2019s center are four Chinese American mothers\u2014immigrants who have imported furniture, mahjong, and Asian traditions into their adoptive city.<\/p>\n
The 1989 novel also highlights San Francisco\u2019s robust Chinatown, a neighborhood dating back to the Gold Rush and which has seen several waves of immigration.<\/p>\n
Despite being one of the most prominent examples of Asian American representation on screen, the film has received backlash from Asian American communities for perpetuating stereotypes that could be considered racist, particularly around Asian men.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost every single Chinese male character was portrayed as evil and irresponsible,\u201d one viewer, a Chinese man, wrote in 1993 for the LA Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/M\/MV5BMzhlZmZlYTItMjQ3ZC00NGZhLWI1YmUtYmZmYmEzMDg5NDBkXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
8. The Pursuit of Happyness <\/em>(2006)<\/h2>\nThe real-life Chris Gardner makes a cameo in this biopic, which is based on his 2006 memoir of the same name and traces his journey from homelessness to business success as a stockbroker.<\/p>\n
Gardner\u2014then a medical equipment salesman with a toddler son\u2014had a chance encounter in the 1980s with a wealthy stockbroker on the street, setting off a path that would allow him to break out of generational poverty.<\/p>\n
Will Smith and his real-life son Jaden star as Gardner and his young son, Christopher Jr., in the film.<\/p>\n
San Francisco\u2019s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system can be seen in several pivotal scenes as a temporary shelter for the Gardners as they faced some of their toughest struggles.<\/p>\n
9. Zodiac<\/em> (2007)<\/h2>\nCartoonist Robert Graysmith\u2019s obsessive quest to track down the Zodiac Killer, the real-life serial murderer whose identity remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, is the focus of this thriller starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal.<\/p>\n
The real-life Graysmith wrote the books Zodiac<\/em> and Zodiac Unmasked<\/em>, on which the film is based.<\/p>\nReplicating the Zodiac Killer\u2019s attacks down to the last detail brought production to idyllic Lake Berryessa just north of the city, where, in 1969, the Zodiac reportedly hid behind two oak trees before brutally stabbing two college students.<\/p>\n
The film crew helicoptered in two oak trees to the now-treeless treeless lake, just to get the shot perfectly right.<\/p>\n
![\"Zodiac](\"https:\/\/encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com\/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSoFWHM50bfUw_LrxOGZo1upKv_oezMGr3_QQ&s\")
<\/p>\n
10. Milk<\/em> (2008)<\/h2>\nSean Penn stars as Harvey Milk in this 2008 film, which covers the gay rights activist and politician\u2019s groundbreaking career as the first openly gay man elected to any public office in California, as well as his subsequent assassination.<\/p>\n
Despite premiering in an election season that saw California voting to ban gay marriage, this film shot to the top of annual best-of lists and took home two Oscars\u2014including one for Penn\u2014for its focus on the power of humanity to bring people together.<\/p>\n
The movie was filmed in the legendary Castro District, and emphasized Milk\u2019s efforts to develop the neighborhood into an international center for LGBTQ+ life and visibility in the \u201970s.<\/p>\n
Producers bought out the original location of Milk\u2019s camera shop (then a gift shop) for a few months, delaying production so as not to interfere with the store\u2019s holiday retail season.<\/p>\n
They also hired a former store employee of Milk\u2019s to serve as an on-set consultant.<\/p>\n
11. Blue Jasmine<\/em> (2013)<\/h2>\nHigh-flying New York socialite Jasmine\u2019s (Cate Blanchett) life takes a sharp turn when she comes to stay with working-class sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins).<\/p>\n
This dramedy treats audiences to a broad swath of the city and surrounding neighborhoods, from the quiet Sunset District where Ginger\u2019s ex Augie (Andrew Dice Clay) lives, to ritzy Marin County to the north, where Jasmine searches for a new beau.<\/p>\n
Blanchett won a Best Actress Oscar for Best Actress for the role (while Hawkins also earned a nod).<\/p>\n
12. The Last Black Man in San Francisco <\/em>(2019)<\/h2>\nIn this heart-wrenching drama, a third-generation San Franciscan (played by writer-actor Jimmie Fails) attempts to reclaim the house his grandfather built in 1946 despite racial disenfranchisement and rising real estate prices.<\/p>\n
Filmmaker Joe Talbot\u2019s portrayal of the ongoing gentrification of the city\u2019s most marginalized communities is underscored by the fact that several of the movie\u2019s filming locations were bulldozed by the time it was released just a year after filming.<\/p>\n
Constant development in the city raised the stakes of filming and made production feel like it was creating a living record. \u201cIt felt like we were trying to preserve the old San Francisco, at least on film,\u201d Talbot told Curbed SF in 2019.<\/p>\n
Although the house Jimmie\u2019s grandfather built is said to be in the Fillmore District, in real life it’s located at 959 South Van Ness in the Mission District, and is often referred to by locals as the John Coop house.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ (1958) is one of many classics set in The Golden City. | John Springer Collection\/GettyImages San Francisco has no shortage of iconic landmarks or unique neighborhoods to … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":701,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/p>\n
2. Vertigo<\/em> (1958)<\/h2>\nDirector Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s quintessential psychological thriller almost took place in Paris, as that was the setting for D\u2019entre les morts<\/em>, the French novel by Boileau-Narcejac that provided the movie\u2019s source material.<\/p>\nHitchcock changed the location to the City by the Bay because of its unique terrain and steep geography.<\/p>\n
Vertigo<\/em> was the first film to use the dolly zoom, an effect in which the camera zooms in while moving backward, to provide a deliciously \u201cvertiginous\u201d experience echoing main character John “Scottie” Ferguson\u2019s (James Stewart) fear of heights.<\/p>\nIn 1996, a restored version of the film premiered at the Castro Theatre, with star Kim Novak and Hitchcock\u2019s daughter, Patricia, in attendance.<\/p>\n
3. Psych-Out<\/em> (1968)<\/h2>\nThe historic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood features heavily in this drug-fueled psychedelic film, which chronicles hippie life during the late 1960s.<\/p>\n
The movie follows a deaf runaway named Jenny (Susan Strasberg) through underground band venues, Haight Street coffee shops, hippie communes, and of course, iconic spots like the Golden Gate Bridge.<\/p>\n
It also features actor Jack Nicholson, right before his breakthrough role in 1969 with Easy Rider<\/em>.<\/p>\nAlthough it\u2019s one of the few movies to capture the city\u2019s once-thriving counterculture, it actually was intended as a cautionary tale and carries a distinctly anti-drug message thanks to producer Dick Clark.<\/p>\n
In his memoir Rock, Roll & Remember<\/em>, Clark wrote: \u201cI\u2019d seen the kids in the hippie communities living in awful squalor. In the film, you see scenes where … they\u2019re all stoned-out having a great time.<\/p>\nThen there\u2019s the morning-after scene\u2014the garbage lying around, a roach crawling through the food, a half-eaten orange crawling with maggots.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
4. Bullitt<\/em> (1968)<\/h2>\nIn this neo-noir thriller, detective Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is tasked with protecting mobster and informant Johnny Ross (Felice Orlandi) as a witness, when suddenly Ross is killed.<\/p>\n
What follows isn\u2019t just the makings of one of the most epochal action films of the 20th century\u2014Bullitt <\/em>is also a veritable tour through the streets of San Francisco.<\/p>\nThe scene that put this film on the map is a thrilling car chase around the city. Shot over three weeks, it runs for almost 11 minutes, with speeds at times reaching up to 110 mph.<\/p>\n
To demonstrate how impossible it would be to recreate in real-life, one fan created a Google Map that shows the great distance between the featured locations.<\/p>\n
5. Escape From Alcatraz<\/em> (1979)<\/h2>\nThis 1979 film is based on the true story of a group of prisoners who attempted to escape from the eponymous maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island in 1962.<\/p>\n
Directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, it succeeds Dirty Harry<\/em> (also set in San Francisco) as the fifth and final collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood.<\/p>\nAlcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed in 1963, a year after the events depicted in the film.<\/p>\n
For onsite shooting, producers connected 15 miles of cable from San Francisco to bring electricity to the prison and made $500,000 worth of restorations to the buildings to emulate historical conditions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
6. Pacific Heights<\/em> (1990)<\/h2>\nDubbed \u201ca horror film for yuppies\u201d by film critic Roger Ebert, Pacific Heights<\/em> takes bad tenant anxieties to the extreme in a city known for its excellent tenant protections.<\/p>\nIn it, a couple (played by Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith) purchase a gorgeous Victorian they can\u2019t afford in one of the city\u2019s ritziest neighborhoods, with the intention of renting out the building\u2019s smaller units downstairs.<\/p>\n
What follows is a gory struggle involving legal battles, stalking, roach infestations, identity theft, and a steady dose of violence\u2014mostly at the hands of a wonderfully villainous Michael Keaton.<\/p>\n
Despite the film\u2019s title and setting, the house used for filming is actually located in Potrero Hill, a working-class neighborhood that was considered unfashionable at the time.<\/p>\n
7. The Joy Luck Club <\/em>(1993)<\/h2>\nAmy Tan\u2019s The Joy Luck Club<\/em> is considered was one of the most seminal works in Asian American literature of the 20th century.<\/p>\nIt was adapted for the silver screen by Tan and Ronald Bass, and at the film\u2019s center are four Chinese American mothers\u2014immigrants who have imported furniture, mahjong, and Asian traditions into their adoptive city.<\/p>\n
The 1989 novel also highlights San Francisco\u2019s robust Chinatown, a neighborhood dating back to the Gold Rush and which has seen several waves of immigration.<\/p>\n
Despite being one of the most prominent examples of Asian American representation on screen, the film has received backlash from Asian American communities for perpetuating stereotypes that could be considered racist, particularly around Asian men.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost every single Chinese male character was portrayed as evil and irresponsible,\u201d one viewer, a Chinese man, wrote in 1993 for the LA Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
8. The Pursuit of Happyness <\/em>(2006)<\/h2>\nThe real-life Chris Gardner makes a cameo in this biopic, which is based on his 2006 memoir of the same name and traces his journey from homelessness to business success as a stockbroker.<\/p>\n
Gardner\u2014then a medical equipment salesman with a toddler son\u2014had a chance encounter in the 1980s with a wealthy stockbroker on the street, setting off a path that would allow him to break out of generational poverty.<\/p>\n
Will Smith and his real-life son Jaden star as Gardner and his young son, Christopher Jr., in the film.<\/p>\n
San Francisco\u2019s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system can be seen in several pivotal scenes as a temporary shelter for the Gardners as they faced some of their toughest struggles.<\/p>\n
9. Zodiac<\/em> (2007)<\/h2>\nCartoonist Robert Graysmith\u2019s obsessive quest to track down the Zodiac Killer, the real-life serial murderer whose identity remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, is the focus of this thriller starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal.<\/p>\n
The real-life Graysmith wrote the books Zodiac<\/em> and Zodiac Unmasked<\/em>, on which the film is based.<\/p>\nReplicating the Zodiac Killer\u2019s attacks down to the last detail brought production to idyllic Lake Berryessa just north of the city, where, in 1969, the Zodiac reportedly hid behind two oak trees before brutally stabbing two college students.<\/p>\n
The film crew helicoptered in two oak trees to the now-treeless treeless lake, just to get the shot perfectly right.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
10. Milk<\/em> (2008)<\/h2>\nSean Penn stars as Harvey Milk in this 2008 film, which covers the gay rights activist and politician\u2019s groundbreaking career as the first openly gay man elected to any public office in California, as well as his subsequent assassination.<\/p>\n
Despite premiering in an election season that saw California voting to ban gay marriage, this film shot to the top of annual best-of lists and took home two Oscars\u2014including one for Penn\u2014for its focus on the power of humanity to bring people together.<\/p>\n
The movie was filmed in the legendary Castro District, and emphasized Milk\u2019s efforts to develop the neighborhood into an international center for LGBTQ+ life and visibility in the \u201970s.<\/p>\n
Producers bought out the original location of Milk\u2019s camera shop (then a gift shop) for a few months, delaying production so as not to interfere with the store\u2019s holiday retail season.<\/p>\n
They also hired a former store employee of Milk\u2019s to serve as an on-set consultant.<\/p>\n
11. Blue Jasmine<\/em> (2013)<\/h2>\nHigh-flying New York socialite Jasmine\u2019s (Cate Blanchett) life takes a sharp turn when she comes to stay with working-class sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins).<\/p>\n
This dramedy treats audiences to a broad swath of the city and surrounding neighborhoods, from the quiet Sunset District where Ginger\u2019s ex Augie (Andrew Dice Clay) lives, to ritzy Marin County to the north, where Jasmine searches for a new beau.<\/p>\n
Blanchett won a Best Actress Oscar for Best Actress for the role (while Hawkins also earned a nod).<\/p>\n
12. The Last Black Man in San Francisco <\/em>(2019)<\/h2>\nIn this heart-wrenching drama, a third-generation San Franciscan (played by writer-actor Jimmie Fails) attempts to reclaim the house his grandfather built in 1946 despite racial disenfranchisement and rising real estate prices.<\/p>\n
Filmmaker Joe Talbot\u2019s portrayal of the ongoing gentrification of the city\u2019s most marginalized communities is underscored by the fact that several of the movie\u2019s filming locations were bulldozed by the time it was released just a year after filming.<\/p>\n
Constant development in the city raised the stakes of filming and made production feel like it was creating a living record. \u201cIt felt like we were trying to preserve the old San Francisco, at least on film,\u201d Talbot told Curbed SF in 2019.<\/p>\n
Although the house Jimmie\u2019s grandfather built is said to be in the Fillmore District, in real life it’s located at 959 South Van Ness in the Mission District, and is often referred to by locals as the John Coop house.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ (1958) is one of many classics set in The Golden City. | John Springer Collection\/GettyImages San Francisco has no shortage of iconic landmarks or unique neighborhoods to … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":700,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=699"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":701,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699\/revisions\/701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newspost24h.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Hitchcock changed the location to the City by the Bay because of its unique terrain and steep geography.<\/p>\n
Vertigo<\/em> was the first film to use the dolly zoom, an effect in which the camera zooms in while moving backward, to provide a deliciously \u201cvertiginous\u201d experience echoing main character John “Scottie” Ferguson\u2019s (James Stewart) fear of heights.<\/p>\n In 1996, a restored version of the film premiered at the Castro Theatre, with star Kim Novak and Hitchcock\u2019s daughter, Patricia, in attendance.<\/p>\n The historic Haight-Ashbury neighborhood features heavily in this drug-fueled psychedelic film, which chronicles hippie life during the late 1960s.<\/p>\n The movie follows a deaf runaway named Jenny (Susan Strasberg) through underground band venues, Haight Street coffee shops, hippie communes, and of course, iconic spots like the Golden Gate Bridge.<\/p>\n It also features actor Jack Nicholson, right before his breakthrough role in 1969 with Easy Rider<\/em>.<\/p>\n Although it\u2019s one of the few movies to capture the city\u2019s once-thriving counterculture, it actually was intended as a cautionary tale and carries a distinctly anti-drug message thanks to producer Dick Clark.<\/p>\n In his memoir Rock, Roll & Remember<\/em>, Clark wrote: \u201cI\u2019d seen the kids in the hippie communities living in awful squalor. In the film, you see scenes where … they\u2019re all stoned-out having a great time.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the morning-after scene\u2014the garbage lying around, a roach crawling through the food, a half-eaten orange crawling with maggots.\u201d<\/p>\n In this neo-noir thriller, detective Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) is tasked with protecting mobster and informant Johnny Ross (Felice Orlandi) as a witness, when suddenly Ross is killed.<\/p>\n What follows isn\u2019t just the makings of one of the most epochal action films of the 20th century\u2014Bullitt <\/em>is also a veritable tour through the streets of San Francisco.<\/p>\n The scene that put this film on the map is a thrilling car chase around the city. Shot over three weeks, it runs for almost 11 minutes, with speeds at times reaching up to 110 mph.<\/p>\n To demonstrate how impossible it would be to recreate in real-life, one fan created a Google Map that shows the great distance between the featured locations.<\/p>\n This 1979 film is based on the true story of a group of prisoners who attempted to escape from the eponymous maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island in 1962.<\/p>\n Directed by Don Siegel and starring Clint Eastwood, it succeeds Dirty Harry<\/em> (also set in San Francisco) as the fifth and final collaboration between Siegel and Eastwood.<\/p>\n Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary closed in 1963, a year after the events depicted in the film.<\/p>\n For onsite shooting, producers connected 15 miles of cable from San Francisco to bring electricity to the prison and made $500,000 worth of restorations to the buildings to emulate historical conditions.<\/p>\n Dubbed \u201ca horror film for yuppies\u201d by film critic Roger Ebert, Pacific Heights<\/em> takes bad tenant anxieties to the extreme in a city known for its excellent tenant protections.<\/p>\n In it, a couple (played by Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith) purchase a gorgeous Victorian they can\u2019t afford in one of the city\u2019s ritziest neighborhoods, with the intention of renting out the building\u2019s smaller units downstairs.<\/p>\n What follows is a gory struggle involving legal battles, stalking, roach infestations, identity theft, and a steady dose of violence\u2014mostly at the hands of a wonderfully villainous Michael Keaton.<\/p>\n Despite the film\u2019s title and setting, the house used for filming is actually located in Potrero Hill, a working-class neighborhood that was considered unfashionable at the time.<\/p>\n Amy Tan\u2019s The Joy Luck Club<\/em> is considered was one of the most seminal works in Asian American literature of the 20th century.<\/p>\n It was adapted for the silver screen by Tan and Ronald Bass, and at the film\u2019s center are four Chinese American mothers\u2014immigrants who have imported furniture, mahjong, and Asian traditions into their adoptive city.<\/p>\n The 1989 novel also highlights San Francisco\u2019s robust Chinatown, a neighborhood dating back to the Gold Rush and which has seen several waves of immigration.<\/p>\n Despite being one of the most prominent examples of Asian American representation on screen, the film has received backlash from Asian American communities for perpetuating stereotypes that could be considered racist, particularly around Asian men.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost every single Chinese male character was portrayed as evil and irresponsible,\u201d one viewer, a Chinese man, wrote in 1993 for the LA Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n The real-life Chris Gardner makes a cameo in this biopic, which is based on his 2006 memoir of the same name and traces his journey from homelessness to business success as a stockbroker.<\/p>\n Gardner\u2014then a medical equipment salesman with a toddler son\u2014had a chance encounter in the 1980s with a wealthy stockbroker on the street, setting off a path that would allow him to break out of generational poverty.<\/p>\n Will Smith and his real-life son Jaden star as Gardner and his young son, Christopher Jr., in the film.<\/p>\n San Francisco\u2019s Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system can be seen in several pivotal scenes as a temporary shelter for the Gardners as they faced some of their toughest struggles.<\/p>\n Cartoonist Robert Graysmith\u2019s obsessive quest to track down the Zodiac Killer, the real-life serial murderer whose identity remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, is the focus of this thriller starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jake Gyllenhaal.<\/p>\n The real-life Graysmith wrote the books Zodiac<\/em> and Zodiac Unmasked<\/em>, on which the film is based.<\/p>\n Replicating the Zodiac Killer\u2019s attacks down to the last detail brought production to idyllic Lake Berryessa just north of the city, where, in 1969, the Zodiac reportedly hid behind two oak trees before brutally stabbing two college students.<\/p>\n The film crew helicoptered in two oak trees to the now-treeless treeless lake, just to get the shot perfectly right.<\/p>\n Sean Penn stars as Harvey Milk in this 2008 film, which covers the gay rights activist and politician\u2019s groundbreaking career as the first openly gay man elected to any public office in California, as well as his subsequent assassination.<\/p>\n Despite premiering in an election season that saw California voting to ban gay marriage, this film shot to the top of annual best-of lists and took home two Oscars\u2014including one for Penn\u2014for its focus on the power of humanity to bring people together.<\/p>\n The movie was filmed in the legendary Castro District, and emphasized Milk\u2019s efforts to develop the neighborhood into an international center for LGBTQ+ life and visibility in the \u201970s.<\/p>\n Producers bought out the original location of Milk\u2019s camera shop (then a gift shop) for a few months, delaying production so as not to interfere with the store\u2019s holiday retail season.<\/p>\n They also hired a former store employee of Milk\u2019s to serve as an on-set consultant.<\/p>\n High-flying New York socialite Jasmine\u2019s (Cate Blanchett) life takes a sharp turn when she comes to stay with working-class sister Ginger (Sally Hawkins).<\/p>\n This dramedy treats audiences to a broad swath of the city and surrounding neighborhoods, from the quiet Sunset District where Ginger\u2019s ex Augie (Andrew Dice Clay) lives, to ritzy Marin County to the north, where Jasmine searches for a new beau.<\/p>\n Blanchett won a Best Actress Oscar for Best Actress for the role (while Hawkins also earned a nod).<\/p>\n In this heart-wrenching drama, a third-generation San Franciscan (played by writer-actor Jimmie Fails) attempts to reclaim the house his grandfather built in 1946 despite racial disenfranchisement and rising real estate prices.<\/p>\n Filmmaker Joe Talbot\u2019s portrayal of the ongoing gentrification of the city\u2019s most marginalized communities is underscored by the fact that several of the movie\u2019s filming locations were bulldozed by the time it was released just a year after filming.<\/p>\n Constant development in the city raised the stakes of filming and made production feel like it was creating a living record. \u201cIt felt like we were trying to preserve the old San Francisco, at least on film,\u201d Talbot told Curbed SF in 2019.<\/p>\n Although the house Jimmie\u2019s grandfather built is said to be in the Fillmore District, in real life it’s located at 959 South Van Ness in the Mission District, and is often referred to by locals as the John Coop house.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ (1958) is one of many classics set in The Golden City. | John Springer Collection\/GettyImages San Francisco has no shortage of iconic landmarks or unique neighborhoods to … 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Psych-Out<\/em> (1968)<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n4. Bullitt<\/em> (1968)<\/h2>\n
5. Escape From Alcatraz<\/em> (1979)<\/h2>\n
6. Pacific Heights<\/em> (1990)<\/h2>\n
7. The Joy Luck Club <\/em>(1993)<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n8. The Pursuit of Happyness <\/em>(2006)<\/h2>\n
9. Zodiac<\/em> (2007)<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
10. Milk<\/em> (2008)<\/h2>\n
11. Blue Jasmine<\/em> (2013)<\/h2>\n
12. The Last Black Man in San Francisco <\/em>(2019)<\/h2>\n