By Mick LaSalle, our guest speaker at our SFTGG General Meeting last year, December 9th, 2024
Mick LaSalle is the film critic emeritus of the Chronicle. Email: askmicklasalle@gmail.com
By Mick LaSalle, Contributor Dec 8, 2025 - San Francisco Chronicle
Howdy, Mick: One of my all-time favorite movies is “The Conversation” (the 1974 neo-noir mystery thriller written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gene Hackman). I like to watch movies set in San Francisco. What other movies set in S.F. do you find outstanding?
Diane Flynn, San Francisco
Howdy, Diane: The San Francisco mentality is nicely captured in “Barbary Coast” (1935) and “San Francisco” (1936). They’re from a long time ago, and they depict an even earlier period, but they both get the city’s mindset.
Unlike other cities, there’s something essentially nostalgic and naive about San Francisco. There’s a tendency for people here to think that life is supposed to be happy and that life could be happy again, if only we can go back a generation or two to when the city was really amazing. It’s a city that rewards flamboyance, because flamboyance is itself naive, grounded in the belief that everyone deserves to know you, because, after all, you’re so wonderful.
I go on and on about this in my 2021 book, “Dream State,” but “Vertigo” strikes me as a great San Francisco movie.
What old San Francisco films tell us about the city’s soul
Greg
Quick and Dirty
Howdy, Mick: One of my all-time favorite movies is “The Conversation” (the 1974 neo-noir mystery thriller written, produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gene Hackman). I like to watch movies set in San Francisco. What other movies set in S.F. do you find outstanding?
Diane Flynn, San Francisco
Howdy, Diane: The San Francisco mentality is nicely captured in “Barbary Coast” (1935) and “San Francisco” (1936). They’re from a long time ago, and they depict an even earlier period, but they both get the city’s mindset.
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Frank Craven, from left, Brian Donlevy, Miriam Hopkins and Edward G. Robinson in the 1935 film “Barbary Coast.”
John Springer Collection via Getty Images
Unlike other cities, there’s something essentially nostalgic and naive about San Francisco. There’s a tendency for people here to think that life is supposed to be happy and that life could be happy again, if only we can go back a generation or two to when the city was really amazing. It’s a city that rewards flamboyance, because flamboyance is itself naive, grounded in the belief that everyone deserves to know you, because, after all, you’re so wonderful.
I go on and on about this in my 2021 book, “Dream State,” but “Vertigo” strikes me as a great San Francisco movie.
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First, it captures the look of the city, circa 1958, better than any other film. But also, the city’s beauty makes it the ideal staging ground for James Stewart’s nervous breakdown.
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The film noir, “D.O.A.” (1949) also works this way, with a guy cracking up, while the city — unfazed — goes about its daily business.
James Stewart, left, and Kim Novak in “Vertigo” (1958).
Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images
Hi, Mick LaSalle: Rapid advancements during the first two decades of the 20th century (radio, automobiles, telephones) had major impacts on the American culture. Do you think the film industry contributed to this, and, specifically, do you think the language of film “sped up” our society?
Ken Kirste, Sunnyvale
Hi, Ken Kirste: Movies may have contributed to a quickening of the pace of modern life. But in another way, they may have actually slowed down the rate of change.
In earlier times, whatever happened 30 years ago felt like a mystery, and this made it easy for fashions and mores to radically change from generation to generation. But by now, we’ve all grown up with concrete proof, in the form of movies, that human beings were pretty much the same 70, 80 and 90 years ago. And I think that lessens the impulse for fashion and social behavior to make a radical break.
These days, if I look at a movie from 2001, so long as I don’t know the actors and nobody whips out a flip phone, I think I could be looking at 2025.
Dear Mick LaSalle: Got any filmic recalls of moments when eyeglasses are used to great effect?
David Peters, San Francisco
Dear David Peters: The first that comes to mind is the mild unpleasantness that ensues when Don Lucchesi (Enzo Robutti) is stabbed in the neck with a pair of glasses in “The Godfather Part III.”
Randy Quaid, left, and Cybill Shepherd talk in “The Last Picture Show” (1971).
Columbia Pictures/Getty Images
Dear Mick LaSalle: The movies of the 1970s were great. When I saw “The Last Picture Show” (1971), I did not have a crush on Cybill Shepherd; I had a crush on Ellen Burstyn.
Steve Work, Concord
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Dear Steve Work: When I was 15, Cybill Shepherd did me a big favor. I wanted to lose weight before starting high school, and so I put a picture of Cybill Shepherd on the refrigerator. I figured that a lot of people motivate themselves negatively: They tape up unattractive pictures of themselves, etc. I wanted to motivate myself positively, with the implicit idea being that if I lost 25 pounds, I’d become cool, and then I’d have a girlfriend like Cybill Shepherd.
I liked Ellen Burstyn just fine, but I also liked Entenmann’s chocolate doughnuts just fine. “Just fine” wasn’t going to cut it. I needed Cybill Shepherd as my motivator, and she got me there. I lost the weight and kept it off. So movie crushes can be helpful.
Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at askmicklasalle@gmail.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.