10 of the best films set in New York

Manhattan, Woody Allen, 1979

"He adored New York City. He idolised it all out of proportion." Woody Allen could never be accused of ignoring his native city, returning time and again to eulogise the virtues of its buildings and its inhabitants. With this black-and-white story of faithless lovers and nervous courtships wending their way through major art galleries, celebrated restaurants and picturesque landmarks, he came closest to the perfect love letter to the place. Filmed in jazz-age black-and-white, and opening with a stunning montage set to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Manhattan is suffused with an affectionate, excited nostalgia.
• Queensboro Bridge; Guggenheim Museum; Museum of Modern Art; Central Park; Russian Tea Room

The Naked City, Jules Dassin, 1948

On one level, a simple docudrama about how the New York police go about their daily work; on another, an amazing, pioneering poem to the rhythms of big-city life, in both its brutality and mundanity. "There are eight million stories in the naked city," said the famous narration, and with extensive use of hidden cameras director Jules Dassin set out to record "one of them" in an unprecedentedly unvarnished way. This is the New York of the Weegee era: hardboiled cops and pill-popping floozies, big hats and Saturday Night specials, a city tender and iron-hard at the same time.
• Williamsburg Bridge; Times Square; West 83rd Street

Ghostbusters, Ivan Reitman, 1984

In some ways the apogee of the first Saturday Night Live generation – a quintessential New York TV institution – this blockbusting comedy took a special brand of mayhem on to the city's streets, making New York an integral part of all the spooky goings-on. From the bookstacking ghoul in the New York public library, to the firehouse HQ, to the intra-dimensional portal on the roof of one of those gothic midtown apartment blocks, Ghostbusters put the city front and centre. And then took great delight in ripping it apart: tearing up the streets, deluging them in goo and demolishing prime real estate.
• New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue; 55 Central Park West; 8 Hook and Ladder firehouse, Tribeca

Read more from The Guardian...