Movies Have the Power to Transport

I recently saw the film, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018). Since I enjoyed the original
Mamma Mia! (2008) as well as the stage play I knew I would enjoy continuing the saga. What took me by surprise was that it made me want to abandon my prior vacation plans and hop a plane to Greece! I absolutely adored the beautiful scenery! So this made me think how movies have the power to transport - to sweep one away to the magical or sometimes harsh reality of travel to various locations through well-told stories. So, I have compiled a list of movies through the decades that evoke a strong sense of place:



Call Me By Your Name (2018)
In 1980s Italy, a romance blossoms between a seventeen year-old student and the older man hired as his father's research assistant.

Carol (2015)
An aspiring photographer develops an intimate relationship with an older woman in 1950s New York.

Wild (2014)
A chronicle of one woman's one thousand one hundred mile Pacific Crest Trail solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.

Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
The adventures of a legendary concierge at a famous hotel between the first and second World Wars, and the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. It's a jaunt through old postcard Europe.

Midnight in Paris (2011)
While on a trip to Paris with his fiance's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s everyday at midnight.

Up (2009)
Seventy-eight year old Carl Fredricksen travels to Paradise Falls in his home equipped with balloons, inadvertently taking a young stowaway.

Into the Wild (2007)
A top student and athlete abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.

Under the Tuscan Sun (2005)
A writer impulsively buys a villa in Tuscany in order to change her life.

Before Sunrise (1995)
A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.

Out of Africa (1985)
In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.

Easy Rider (1969)
Through the open country and desert lands, two bikers head from L.A to New Orleans, and along the way, meet a man who bridges a counter-culture gap they are unaware of.

Doctor Zhivago (1965)
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during the First World War and then the Russian October Revolution.

Vertigo (1958)
No movie captured the allure of the City by the Bay better than Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 masterpiece. Hitchcock filmed famous landmarks - the Golden Gate Bridge, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, Ernie's restaurant - in a subjective, lyrical style, to heighten the growing romantic love obsession that James Stewart feels toward Kim Novak, whom he tracks around the city.

Roman Holiday (1955)
A bored and sheltered princess escapes her guardians and falls in love with an American newsman in Rome.


Hope you enjoy a little arm chair traveling!