For Valentine’s Day in 2019, I made the first volume of a zine called I Love New York. The zine’s format was based on an annual catalog book series titled Screen World by John Willis that published images and cast and crew information for films of that year released in the US and abroad. The first volume of I Love New York was a catalog of some of my favorite romance films shot in New York City from 1950 to 2009. I covered 35 films in the first issue and released a second issue in 2020 featuring 34 more films. Since making issue two, I have been working on an ongoing list of films to compile into the definitive catalog of romance films shot in New York City. This blog is a place to hear a little bit more about the films that show New York City as the ultimate city to fall in love in.
The Criteria:
When choosing films that “qualify” in this series, the main criterion is that the audience sees some part of any of the 5 boroughs that make up New York City as the setting of the film and that the film has themes of romance and romantic love. Most films in this series very easily follow these guidelines, but some great romance films toe the line. Because there are so many films set in New York City where the main focus of the film is a romantic relationship, it has been helpful to be strict with these guidelines. Does Sweet Home Alabama count even though the main romantic relationship isn’t played out in New York City? Is there enough of New York City in the 1995 version of Sabrina? And for the sake of all the other great romance films shot there, do the Hamptons count as an unofficial extra borough if the characters are all New Yorkers? Then there is the issue of films set in New York City versus films shot in New York City. This is an issue particularly with films from the 50s and 60s because many of these films set in New York City were shot on soundstages, such as the 1960 film Let’s Make Love which is set on Broadway but filmed in Los Angeles in a studio. This blog is also a place to help work out the specifics of what films can skate by on their New York-ness and what films are too much of a stretch to include.
Another criterion for this series is the time frame I’ve implemented. I wanted a solid couple of decades of films to focus on so I decided on 50 years of romance films and 50 years of New York City from the 1960s through the 2000s. There are not as many films actually shot on the streets of New York City before the 1960s because most films were still part of the Hollywood studio system and shot on soundstages in Los Angeles. As far as the decision to cut off films shot after 2009, I personally believe the 2000s begin the decline of the romance genre.
Most of these films I’ve seen, some I haven’t gotten around to yet and some are unavailable to me to watch. I’ll try to update ways to stream or purchase these films when available! Here’s to falling in love <3 P