I have found that foreign films in general are a great motivator and inspiration for travel. The movies need not be travel themed mind you, it's simply the romantic and often exotic foreign imagery that does all the work.
On a different note, Rick Steve's TV shows also does wonders for wanderlust. I'm always impressed at the high production value they achieve with such a small crew.
Foreign Films or Films of Foreign Places or Films in Foreign Places?
Films shot in a foreign place:
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011)
A Good Day to Die Hard (2012)
Hercules (2014)
Spy (2015)
Films about a foreign place:
Ladies in Love (1936)
The Shop Around the Corner (1940)
Van Helsing (2004)
Foreign Films Featuring a foreign location
Kontroll (2003)
Children of Glory (2006)
American films shot on location:
The Bourne Trilogy:
The Bourne Identity (2002)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
These are action/suspense films, but between the three movies, they cover a ton of locations all over Europe.
And also:
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
This film is shot on location in Italy. Terribly beautiful and romantic backdrops.
An excellent German film centering on the Stasi and the fall of the Wall:
The Lives of Others (2007)
1900 by Bertolucci
Stockholm
The Millennium Series by Steig Larsson
-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
-The Girl Who Played with Fire
-The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
The Swedish Films, not the American ones.
The Third Man--if it doesn't make you want to visit Vienna, nothing will. My all-time favourite movie for many reasons--haunting cinematography, the superb cast, the delightful zither music--and it's just now being re-released after its first major restoration. I spent an entire week in Vienna seeing all things related to the movie.
Other movies I like include Woman in Gold, The Lives of Others, Midnight in Paris, In Bruges, and there's a new series on the Sundance channel called Deutschland 83 that's quite good.
"Oh Boy" is a German movie, shot in b/w, with great impressions of Berlin.
I suggest a serious film..."The Woman in Gold" and a comedy, a film that is hilarious on Belgian and French stereotypes, perceptions of each other, etc..."Rien a declarer" (Nothing to declare). There is also a German version of the film..."Nichts zu verzollern"
Fred, "The Woman in Gold" is a "very good" film, but an outstanding illustration that there are still some ghosts in the closets of Europe. I did a little research and the move runs pretty true to fact.
Here is another you might like Fred: Budapest to Gettysburg (2007)
After my first visit to Venice, I found myself in a vast movie theatre in Zurich watching Visconti's recently released "Death in Venice" with Swiss friends from the trip. Thomas Mann's novella is translated into a moving performance by Dirk Bogarde as von Aschenbach (Mahler), but the star of the movie is Venice and Mahler's music. Rent it and watch it with your best sound system turned up high. In later visits to Venice I have 'wandered into the movie' on several occasions. The slim book is worth reading by itself And there are now Donna Leon novels in film format....
A few comedies and suspense foreign films in the original foreign language: "Cinema Paradiso" (It.), " La Nuit de Varennes " historical (Fr.), "Rien a declarer." (Fr.), " La Balance" (Fr.), "La Souper" historical (Fr)
For Paris, I watch Paris, je t'aime over and over again. Before I go, when I get back and again just because.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0401711/
For Rome, The Great Beauty/La grande bellezza - great views of Rome.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2358891/?ref_=nv_sr_1
I look forward to trying the others listed above!
