One of the most exciting reasons for visiting a city is because is has appeared in our favourite flick. Historically, major touristic cities like New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Miami have time and again become the film sets of movies which have become household names. Think Amelie in Paris, Annie Hall, Taxi Driver, Marathon Man, Kramer vs. Kramer, The Warriors in New York, The King´s Speech in London, Kill Bill vol. 1 in Tokyo, Casino Royale, Jackie Brown, The Godfather, American History X, A.I (Artificial Intelligence) in Miami(I got carried away with the Miami and New York list). These movies and others have either inspired us to visit these cities or hold great sentiments for us each time we think of the city. Madrid, on the other hand is not linked to many high budget blockbuster movies, we leave massive budgets to the signings of football players by Real Madrid. However, it has an interesting list of films either made in the city or with scenes from the city. Here follows the list:

Movies made in Madrid

1. A movie about Madrid´s artistic heritage:Goya´s Ghost. This films starres Javier Bardem and the Oscar winner of late Natalie Portman. It is about the life of the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, popularly known as Goya. The film has scenes of The Retiro Park, Palacio del Infante don Luis in the neighbourhood of Boadilla, streets of Segovia, Salamanca as well as Aranjuez in Madrid.

1. The second movie with scenes from Madrid is Abre los ojos (English Version is Open your eyes in English). This film was directed by Alejandro Amenábar of   “The Others” and “The Sea Inside” fame. Abre los ojos was adapted to the film that was later blamed for the rupture of Penelope Cruz and Tom Cruise´s romance, Vanilla Sky.Penelope Cruz acts in both films. Abre los ojos shows scenes with Gran Via street. Other films which feature Madrid´s 5^th Avenue, Gran Via are El día de la Bestia and La flor de mi secreto.
2. The Lovers of the Arctic Circle (Original Version: Los Amantes del Circulo Polar) is another film with scenes shot in Madrid.
3. Don’t miss the Spanish film Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, or if your Spanish is good enough its original version Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios. This Spanish dark humour film is hilarious and features Antonio Banderas in his younger and skinnier days.
4. Vantage Point: This film was very popular in the US. It stars Forest Whitaker and Dennis Quaid and it’s about a presidential assassination attempt in Plaza Mayor. It wasn’t a great movie, but there are many cool car-chase scenes throughout Madrid.
5. Many scenes of one of the all time great movies, Dr Zhivago, were filmed in and around Madrid.
6. In the film The Bourne Ultimatum there are few scenes filmed in the city center (Plaza de Canalejas and surroundings), in Atocha rail station and in the new airport terminal of Barajas T4.
7. Most of the action scenes of the so called anti-commercial thriller, The Limits of Control, are set in Madrid.

1. Not to be upstaged as a football-crazed city, some films about football were also made here. The next film was more like a public relations audiovisual for Real Madrid and was unsurprisingly called The Real Movie. This is definitely a Real Madrid fan´s movie featuring scenes of fan hysteria like those of a Tokyo based teenager going hysterical for David Beckam, or featuring Zinedine Zidane´s diehard Senegalese fan or a scene from the 1963 kidnapping of the Real Madrid iconic Alfredo Di Stefano.

1. Goal II: Living the Dream is another football fan´s flick. It is part of a series about this kid from LA who begins playing for Real Madrid, again the movie isn’t great but there are a ton of cameos by star players including Beckham, Sergio Ramos, and two footballers who have currently let themselves go, the Brazilians Ronaldo and Ronaldinho.
2. Last but not least, and fresh from the religious holiday of semana santa (Easter Week in Spanish), in 1961 Madrid became the location of epic films Jesus Christ, King of Kings and El Cid.