San Francisco

Author: Sidel
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1999-06-01
Features: On the streets of San Francisco, the strongest chord is the passion of immigrants: an intoxicating cultural melting pot. This city has given the world "Beat Generation," the "Hippie" revolution, the protest of LGBTQ+ rights, and the "Yuppie" (a term coined in the San Francisco Bay Area). Whether you love it or not, whether you're obsessed with it or not, San Francisco has everything a world-class vacation destination should have, and this book has all the information a travel guide should provide. This book offers an overview of San Francisco from five aspects, interspersed with numerous colorful images of San Francisco, highlighting the cultural significance of its attractions and covering all the information needed for a trip to San Francisco. Excerpt: "San Francisco, the 'screen star'" San Francisco is located 387 miles north of Hollywood. Hollywood, located in the suburbs of Los Angeles, has been the center of the U.S. film industry since 1911. When filming, San Francisco is always the first choice for city exteriors. In this century, she has become an unparalleled "super star" in the film industry: inspiring countless famous directors, whether in epic masterpieces or commercial soap operas, she always appears with her charming allure. One of the pleasures of watching old films starring San Francisco is that her lovely face has hardly changed. Cable cars, skyscrapers in the financial district, Alcatraz, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Bay Bridge—San Francisco remains as captivating in scratched black-and-white films as she is in today's color films. It's worth mentioning that 1940s crime films, such as Humphrey Bogart's "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Big Sleep," and Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" (1958), have cast a mysterious and melancholic veil over San Francisco. The notorious Alcatraz prison even inspired a series of films based on it, including Porter Lane's "The Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), Clint Eastwood's "Escape from Alcatraz" (1979), and the recent "Murder Time." The 1980s saw an increase in scenes of Chinatown in films, such as "Hammer," "Chinatown," and "Death Pool," while other famous films utilized the hilly terrain of areas like "Presidio," "Pacific Heights," and "Bryant" to create unparalleled urban chase scenes. Today, San Francisco is called "North Hollywood," partly because filming crews are almost always in the city every month, and partly because San Francisco itself has become a vibrant center of the film industry. Famous director and producer Francis Ford Coppola has an office on Columbus Street, while George Lucas, the director of "Star Wars" and the "Indiana Jones" series, has established a film studio in Lucas Valley near San Rafael in the northern part of the city. Clearly, San Francisco is a super star who will never retire.