Imaginary City

Chance encounters, cat ladies, and a car-infested Paris. On this episode we discuss the 1962 French New Wave classic Cleo from 5 to 7, directed by Agnes Varda and starring Corrine Marchand. Come tour the streets of the City of Love with a beautiful, young chanteuse as she learns to confront her own mortality, while sitting in cafes and shopping for hats. Learn about gender mainstreaming, how Paris...

Rogue replicants, flying cars, and a gritty vision of LA that’s a little bit Mayan and a lot Beijing by way of New York. On this episode we discuss the 1982 sci-fi cult classic Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. In Blade Runner the future is fusion and Los Angelos is dense and walkable (too bad about the killer robots and the nuclear w...

LA! Murder! Conspiracy! Incest! And you thought civic infrastructure was boring. On this episode we discuss the classic 1974 neo-noir classic Chinatown, directed by Roman Polanski, and starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. We separate fact from fiction in the California Water Wars as we explore this fascinating tale of power and corruption and how cities get built. Along the way we ask the que...

Unlikely friendships, wandering the streets of Tokyo, and growing emotional intimacy over bowls of noodles. On this episode we discuss the 2003 comedy-drama Lost in Translation, directed by Sofia Coppola and starring Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray, and the 2007 comedy-drama Adrift in Tokyo (Tenten in the original Japanese), directed by Satoshi Miki and starring Joe Odagiri and Tomokazu Miura....

Brutalism, class warfare, and men behaving badly. On this episode we discuss the 2015 dystopian thriller High Rise, directed by Ben Wheatley and starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, and Sienna Miller. Does Brutalism make people brutal, or is the polarizing architectural style just a scapegoat for more complex social problems? And just how high is too high? This one gets weird. Hide your pets, we...

New Urbanism, master-planned communities, and the surveillance society. On this episode we discuss the 1998 satirical drama The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir and starring Jim Carrey. We dig in to the origins of the suburbs, the rise of TNDs (traditional neighbourhood developments), and ask the question - do any of us really have free will?

We are taking a break for the summer, but before we sign off we wanted share some of the books, YouTube channels, podcasts, and social media accounts that have helped us better understand cities. Links to all of the content we mention in the episode are below: The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs https://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/86058/ Home From Nowhere by James Howard...

Wicker Park, record stores, and emotionally-stunted men. On this episode we discuss the 2000 romantic comedy High Fidelity directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack. Revisit the past when life was analog, people shopped in stores, and the city was a great (and affordable) place to be young and cool. We take a deep dive into the origins of the word hipster, consider what it means to be a...

A lost dog, a Walgreens parking lot, and the Pacific Northwest. On this episode we discuss the 2008 indie drama Wendy and Lucy, directed by Kelly Reichardt and starring Michelle Williams. North American cities are ugly, and there's a reason. Learn about minimum parking requirements, the horror of stroads, and the rise of anti-vagrancy laws as we try to answer the question, what do we owe each othe...

Edinburgh, AIDS, a killer soundtrack, and the worst toilet in Scotland. On this episode we discuss the 1996 British dark comedy Trainspotting, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Ewan McGregor. We look at the intersection of health and housing policy, the impacts of deindustrialization on cities, and the G-word (gentrification).

Angels, Acrobats, Nick Cave, and the Berlin Wall. In this episode we discuss the 1987 German film Wings of Desire , directed by Wim Wenders and starring Bruno Ganz and Solveig Dommartin. We ask the question, what are cities for? Repositories of history, refuges from existential angst, laboratories for art and cuture, all of the above? We also wax poetic about public libraries, and go on philosophi...

Vienna, trains, and kissing on ferris wheels. On this episode we discuss the 1995 romantic drama Before Sunset , directed by Richard Linklater and starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke. We celebrate the joys of walking and talking, quality third places, and pine for the days of pre-Internet travel. Warning, this episode may arouse nostalgia for the nineties.

Welcome to Imaginary City, a podcast about cities on film. We’re two armchair urbanists who also happen to be movie buffs. We love to nerd out on cities and pop culture, so we decided to bring our two loves together in one podcast. Join us as we explore urban spaces through the magic of the movies and consider what we can learn about people and society from the places we design and build. Every ot...