Popcorn Traveller: 10 films for excellent armchair travel
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Overseas trips are still on hold, crowds still make us uncomfortable and airports are to be avoided.
However, we can still feast our eyes on the world’s most scenic places from the comfort of a cinema seat—or our own couches. Be transported by the locations, and the stories, in these movies.
The hardest part of this piece was selecting just one film to represent a destination…
All Bond Films
Pick your preferred version of this spy and your preferred destination. Since the first film (Dr. No, 1962) exotic locations have been one of the key calling cards of this franchise.
Skiing through the Alps, parkouring in the Bahamas or car chases through Monaco—there is something for everyone. But most locations play substitutes for somewhere else. The Czech Republic seems to be able to stand in for everywhere!
Out of Africa
The sweeping scenery of Kenya in this film is so well shot, so lovingly pieced together that I still say you could fast forward through the action and just enjoy the visuals.
But don’t do that, you will miss Meryl in one of her best accents and Robert Redford too. Karin’s last moments with her Kenyan overseer, Farah, still bring me to tears.
Russian Ark
It was a tough choice between this and Doctor Zhivago but as the good doctor was filmed in Spain (yep, that’s beeswax, not ice), the Hermitage Museum film wins. Just over 90 minutes long, this film is one single take.
It took six months to rehearse and exactly as long as you see to film. A single tracking shot through the vast array of rooms in Catherine the Great’s winter palace, that introduces the viewer the Catherine herself, the Romanoffs and many, many others as we take in the art, the treasures, the furniture.
The Darjeeling Limited
This film has so much going for it. The fantastic Mr. Wes directed it (and you can see it as part of the retrospective festival at Dendy in February), the delicious Adrien Brody stars in it and the story is involving.
But that’s not why it is in this listicle—it is here because it is the best depiction of the extensive rail system in India and a great way to experience rural India from the comfort of a chair.
The Lord of the Rings saga
I think everyone knows that New Zealand stood in for Middle Earth, don’t they? A whole industry has grown up around taking tourists to the sites, visiting the Hobbit village, buying Elfin cloaks and ears, Hobbit feet…the list goes on.
If the story is too complicated for you, feel the power of your remote control, and fast forward to the journeying scenes. Awesome stuff.
The Motorcycle Diaries
Che Guevara before he became a poster. The true story (filmed on location) of a motorcycle trip the revolutionary took as a young student. That the lovely Gael Garcia Bernal plays Che is just one of the bonuses here.
We get to see Machu Picchu without running out of breath. We can go on a 14,000-kilometre journey through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela without raining a sweat. But it isn’t always an easy trip.
Crazy Rich Asians
Singapore at its finest—and certainly at its most extravagant. An ultramodern city where the excess of wealth is celebrated, this is not the Singapore of my backpacking days, but it is the city I still enjoy.
Orchard Road, Raffles, the waterfront, the skyline. We even get to see it through a tourist’s eyes as the protagonist is a New Yorker. Favourite scene? The Mahjong one, of course.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Bear with me, I know Ben Stiller is an acquired taste, but the story is really very good, and the locations are great. Particularly Iceland, substituting for Greenland.
Except for Out of Africa, no other film has made me want to visit a place like this one made me want to visit Iceland.
Amélie
Just as last year’s The Goddess of Fortune shows audiences a Rome away from the tourists, this film shows us the corners of Paris. Yes, there are lots of recognisable icons, but there are also small streets, railway stations, alleys.
With so many films about Paris, you could really pick any one, but this is my favourite.
High Ground
Perhaps, rather than dreaming of leaving our island, we should see more of it? This is a love letter the gorgeous, wild top end of Australia.
Pandanus, magpie geese, crocodiles and paper gums—sumptuous but untamed. Several actors, including the lead, work as rangers in Kakadu National Park. Maybe you will recognise one if you visit? Read the review here.
