movies

The view Frasier has of the Seattle skyline was completely impossible without rearranging city blocks and moving buildings around the city.

Brazil is always misrepresented everywhere, but two funny cases come to mind:

There was a House episode where Dr. House was treating a CIA officer who had been to Bolivia and had eaten a lot of nuts. At the end of the episode House realized the officer has actually been to Brazil and not Bolivia and then figures out that he ate Brazil Nuts, which could cause all the symptoms he had. In reality Brazil Nuts are much more common in Bolivia than they are in Brazil (or anywhere else).

The other case was Westworld, Vincent Cassel speaks perfect Portuguese while playing an American character, talking to a Brazilian character whose actor speaks it incorrectly and with an extremely loaded accent.

They always show India incorrectly, way more colourful and cleaner than it is. I think mostly not shot here too. Especially in older movies. Also the people speak English in an accent that only Indians abroad speak in.

Midsommar got pretty much nothing right. They also decided it should take place in Hälsingland because I guess that sounds cool to Americans.

First example is probably going to be Emily in Paris, it's a running gag on French media how distorted the image of the city is in that show.

The finnish youth movie Pitkä Kuuma Kesä, set in 1980's Joensuu, really portrays the cops in far too positive light. They werent as jovial and unviolent as in the movie - they employed their rubber batongs much more freely irl. I know from experience.

They are luckily far less violent and authoritarian in current times, per my own experience and being told by my friends.

There was this show called “Night Shift” that was supposed to be set in San Antonio… complete with mountains in the background. (It was filmed in Albuquerque and San Antonio has no mountains near it)

I went to the Museum of Liverpool today and they have a big section on the city in film and TV and it has appeared in a lot more than media than you'd think but largely standing in for elsewhere.

When it is featured as itself, the depictions are usually pretty accurate because they've been written by locals. I suppose the worst example is 51st State but that is over-the-top and so everything is rather cartoonish - my brother's friend was an extra in that gang of punks but was largely left on the cutting floor.

Vikings portrayal of Uppsala is absolutely laughable, in the show it's portrayed as this väst landscape with mountains and waterfalls. Uppsala is almost completely flat, it's sometimes referred to as "The Uppsala flats".

Every single day an actor tries to do a Southern accent but most are cringeworthy to a Southerner. (US)

Fargo, but I love it anyway.

Portlandia, there are definitely a lot more homeless here and there is certain neighborhoods you don't want to be in at night.

The only one that comes to mind is a film called The 51st State starring Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle.

There was a group of us at a job many, many years ago performing a survey of Liverpool. One night in the hotel, Channel 4 broadcast the film, which is set in the city. The following morning, two of the guys who had been surveying all the backstreets and alleyways commented that the chase in the film made no sense to them. This was because they could see the cars were jumping to different spots in the city, and it wasn't coherent.

But I guess you could make that comment about a lot of car chases in the movies.

I haven't seen one for my city yet. They've pretty much called it out as the shithole it is the few times I have seen my city mentioned by name in some popular media.

I'm American so I could list so many movies from Hollywood (ie made by my own country) that misrepresent this country. Just pick anything at random, really. They all make it look better than it is, even when showing off what sucks.

A-Team the movie is bad in many aspects but what really sticks out for Germans is that while the movie played in Frankfurt (and was shot in Vancouver), they showed aerial shots from Cologne. Which is especially weird because I don't think aerial shots of Frankfurt should be hard to come by (they are used extensively in Arrow for example) and Cologne is probably one of the most recognizable cities in Germany

I went to college in Muncie, Indiana, which is the inspiration for Pawnee in Parks and Recreation.

Muncie is kinda like Pawnee, I guess. But without the whimsy.

The Hostel showed Bratislava and Slovakia as a post-communist hellscape. It was very much overblown and not filmed here at all.

Funily enough some cat chase scene for whatever action film was filmed here while the chase was supposed to be in Vienna (I think).

Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse is set next to a real life lighthouse in my hometown. I used to go crawl around on the rocks so much so that I recognize some of them in the trailer. I haven't watched it yet since I don't find much time for movies anymore. I'm really looking forward to it. Horror movies also happen to be my thing, but my to-watch list is huge at this point.

In Crocodile Dundee (1986), there is a famous scene where the lead characters are mugged at knife point, producing the quote "That's not a knife, this is a knife." In New York City, you actually get mugged at gun point.