Just another false alarm...

An old friend of mine has just started a blog with the intention of documenting her transition from Canada, where she's been living for the past year, back to England and the re-acclimatisation process. An interesting post there discusses the number of American films which have been shot in Canada - Toronto in particular - while the action of the film ostensibly remains in America. As she says 'you can spend a fortune on cinema tickets without ever realising you've become acquainted with Canada at all'.

This is of course the case with a great many locations, extending well beyond America's continental boundaries. So, in an SWP ranter fashion, we could suggest that cinema is a tool of the new imperialism; by this token, the entire world becomes part of the US, without Americans ever needing to leave home. Of course, we do it too, and most film making countries do. For many it's a matter of finance - cheaper to locate a film in Abu Dhabi than in Atlanta etc. - which is understandable, but, plot considerations aside, why not just set the film on location too? Many of the worst culprits are the ones for whom plot is such a minor feature - a mere cloak in which their beautiful stars to parade - that it really wouldn't matter if they stepped out of Howard Johnson's and onto the streets of India anyway...