La Rambla is such a popular street that it has appeared in the best films set in Barcelona. Fancy a movie marathon?

Do you know that joy sensation when you identify your favorite bar in a movie? Well, here we’re used to that. We remember those films set in Barcelona that have been successful in cinema theaters. Are we missing any?

Wheels on Meals (Sammo Hungm 1984)

Its original name is Kuiai Can Che. In this movie,Jackie Chan is Tomás, the owner of a fast food stall in Barcelona. Las Ramblas and other streets of Barcelona witness impossible martial arts fights and most of all, Tomás struggling to call the attention of Sylvia. She is a pickpocket who pretends to be a prostitute to attack her victims… and the heir of a fortune.

films set in barcelona
Scene from ‘Wheels on Meals’.

 

Barcelona (Whit Stillman, 1994)

The indie director portrayed Barcelona after the 1992 Olympic Games from the point of view of a businessman from Chicago. He travels to Barcelona to visit his extravagant cousin Fred and ends up immersed in a conspiracy.

peliculas rodadas en barcelona
Scene from ‘Barcelona’.

 

La Moños (Mireia Ross, 1997)

This emblematic character of La Rambla deserved a film and this Catalan director made it. In the Barcelona of the 1930’s two young girls are fascinated by La Moños and her history. One of them, Pepi, uses her imagination to reconstruct the story of this beloved woman visualizing her youth and most of all, the love story that made her mad.

peliculas rodadas en barcelona
Scene from ‘La Moños’.

 

All about my mother (Pedro Almodóvar, 1999)

Manuela witnesses the death of her son the day he turns 17. Shattered, she travels to Barcelona to find her father and tell him the news. The film that consecrated Almodóvar as international director (won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2000) shows hotspots such us the Columbus Monument and Barcelona’s House of Silk in the Gothic Quarter.

películas rodadas en barcelona
Scene from ‘All about my mother’.
 L’auberge espagnole (Cédric Klapisch, 2002)

If you’ve ever wanted to know how is living an Erasmus experience in Barcelona, ​​this movie tries to explain it. As sightseeing buses do, it shows essential places as Plaza de Catalunya, La Rambla, the Plaza Real, the Park Güell or the Sagrada Familia.

Scene from ‘L’auberge espagone’.

 

The perfume: story of a murderer (Tom Tykwer, 2006)

Based on Patrick Süskind’s homonymous novel, The Perfume tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a serial killer obsessed with smells. Although the argument takes place in the Paris of the seventeenth century, many of the locations are located in Barcelona. Therefore, If you have seen it,  you sure have not missed San Felipe Neri square, the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter or the Labyrinth of Horta.

Scene from ‘The Perfume: Story of a murderer’.
Vicky Christina Barcelona (Woody Allen, 2008)

In this production Woody Allen, who has always proclaimed his love for New York, changed the streets of Manhattan by La Rambla, La Pedrera or Tibidabo. The director wanted to shoot in the Catalan capital and the plot of a love triangle between Penelope Cruz, Scarlett Johansson and Javier Bardem was the perfect opportunity for it. Some critics indicated that the film doesn’t give a realistic view of Barcelona.

films set in barcelona
Scene from ‘Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona’.

 

Biutiful (Alejandro González de Iñárritu, 2010)

If Vicky, Christina, Barcelona shows Javier Bardem enjoying a radiant and colorful Barcelona, ​​here we see him on the other side of the coin. There are lots of films set in Barcelona but none of them show the dark side of the city as this one does. Biutiful is about a a father that feels spirits and exploits African and Asian immigrants. It represents very well the bitter face of Roig Street in El Raval, the cemetery of Sants or La Rambla.

films set in barcelona
Scene from ‘Biutiful’.