Do you love your city?

I'm not talking about the white-bread love that Seattleans have for Seattle, or Portland Oregon people have for their white-bread city. No, I'm talking about the deep love that San Franciscoans have for SF, the fierce love New Yorkers have for NYC, or the gumbo love that New Orleans people have for their city. That's why New Orleans will come back; it has character, atmosphere, eccentricity. Too many cities in America are plain vanilla: no character, no eccentricity, nothing hybrid about them. While we're on about New Orleans, my list of three movies to rent that are set in our new Atlantis, with many views of its former splendor:
1. King Creole, the one real good Elvis movie. Directed by Casablanca director Michael Curtiz. New Orleans in beautiful black and white. With Walter Matthau, when he played villains before he became lovable.
2. Down by Law by Jim Jarmusch. As idiosyncratic as the city itself. Very funny, too. Truly bizarre cast: Tom Waits, John Lurie, and sweet Italian comic Roberto Benigni.
3. The Big Easy. With the best sex scene ever done by Hollywood. Correction: the ONLY good sex scene done by Hollywood.