Cinematic love letters to cities may not be a movie genre, however, they are prevalent throughout filmmaking history, inspiring filmmakers of various generations to center their story arcs around the hustle and bustle of urban living or an entire city.

A city as the primary character of a movie is certainly not what major production studios will be drooling over today. Still, some of the best works in cinematic history have been inspired by urban centers and the people who dwell in them.

Over half of the world’s population inhabits urban areas, so it’s no surprise that filmmakers have drawn inspiration from urban tales to connect to audiences. The joys and despair of city dwellers aren’t the only things that moviegoers can relate to, but a city also tugs on our sense of nostalgia and is a signifier of change, be it progress or decay.

Woody Allen’s Manhattan (1979), Yosujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953), Wim Wender’s Wings Of Desire (1987), Mikhail Kalatozov’s Soy Cuba (1964), and Guy Maddin’s My Winnipeg (2007), are not only great examples of cinematic love letters to cities but are some of cinema’s most revered films.

A city as another character in a movie may be a movie making cliche today. But when done right, it can bridge the gap between history and the present, a receptacle of memory, an inspiration for fantastical cinematic landscapes, and an opportunity for viewers to confront the human condition as a result of the slow grind of mundaneness.

Great artists need to understand the rhythm of the masses to speak to them through their art. Understanding the spirit of a city and its people gives great filmmakers a window into the communal emotions that vibrate through it.

The great Italian director Federico Fellini is a great example of this, as he used the eternal city of Rome as the centerpiece in some of his best works. Fellini and Rome gave the world masterpieces like 1954’s Nights In Cabiria and 1960’s La Dolce Vita, but it was 1972’s Roma where Rome truly played the main character.

“Roma” is a semi-autobiographical film depicting Fellini’s move from his native Rimini to Rome, but it’s essentially a homage to the city. The movie has a minimal plot but centers on two journeys to Rome by the director.

The film alternates between these two journeys of Fellini as a young man in Rome in the 1930s and 1940s and as a director of a film crew shooting a movie about Rome. The result is a journey through urban time, depicting changes in the city's culture, community, history, politics, and religion.

City dwelling is a big part of our modern global culture and 1972’s Roma touches on themes and socio-political issues that urban dwellers and the majority of the populace today can still relate to. But most of all, Roma captures the evolution and vibration of modernity through the eyes of an ancient city.

Towards the movie’s end, American writer Gore Vidal makes a cameo appearance, and his monologue sums up the joyful plight of modern urban living.

“You may ask why an American writer would want to live in Rome. First of all, I like the Romans. They don’t care if you live or die. They’re indifferent, like cats. Rome is a city of illusions. After all the church, the government, and the film industry are all based here. They all produce illusions… like you do and like I do. The end of the world is coming ever closer because of overpopulation. Too many cars, too many poisons. What better place than Rome, which has been reborn so often? What place could be more peaceful to await the end from pollution and overpopulation? It’s the perfect place to watch if it all ends or not.”

Cinema today, however, is dominated by movie franchises, and moviegoers don’t go to the cinema for an auteur director's love letter to their beloved city anymore. But audiences are often fickle and trends are always changing in this ever-changing world.

If you’re an optimist you would hope that there is a populace that craves originality and needs to consume and be inspired by it. Cities can still inspire originality in filmmaking and there is still a vast resource of untapped cities to mine stories that connect us to our human condition.

Urban stories are tales the majority of us can relate to, and they very likely can provide us with a much-needed compass, directing us in uncertainty, grounding us to the harshness of reality, and providing us with some solace in the repetitive rhythms of modernity.

Here’s a list of more cinematic love letters to cities for your viewing pleasure:

Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! (1988).
Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund’s City Of God ( 2002).
Denys Archand’s Jesus Of Montreal (1989).
Alexander Sokurov’s Russian Ark (2002).
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty ( 2013).
Terence Davies’ Of Time And The City (2008).
Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 (2004).
Leos Carax’s Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991).
Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation (2003).
Tamer El-Said’s In The Last Days Of The City (2016).