10 of the best films set in Barcelona

What is arguably Almodóvar's greatest work begins with tragedy in Madrid, but soon moves to Barcelona, beginning with a breathtaking night-time glimpse of the Sagrada Familia, where the sheer buoyancy of the city steers the film in a powerful and dazzling new direction. Here Manuela (the magnificent Cecilia Roth) reunites with her old friend, the witty and wonderful transsexual prostitute Agrado (Antonia San Juan) – whose flat overlooks the Palau de la Música – while inadvertently immersing herself in the world of theatre and helping a naive young nun (Penélope Cruz). Art mirrors life mirrors art in this vibrantly colourful (literally), multi-layered tribute to women ("We are all women!'" says Almodóvar) that beautifully captures the dynamism and generous spirit of the city itself.
• La Sagrada Família; Palau de la Música; Hospital del Mar; Plaça del Duc de Medinaceli

In 1998, a plan of renovation began in Barcelona with the aim of cleaning up the "Barrio Chino", a working-class neighbourhood that was also home to immigrants, prostitutes, drug dealers and the homeless. The first phase was the demolition of a block of flats for the construction of condos, displacing the locals. Guerin filmed more than 120 hours of the process, which he edited down to 127 minutes. We watch this diverse mix, along with bricklayers and builders, hearing snippets of their conversations as walls are toppling all around and a Roman cemetery is unearthed. Then comes the new set of prospective buyers, who hope the views of washing hanging out on the line soon disappear. Some did, some didn't.
• El Xino/The Barrio Chino (now called the Raval); the Apollo; the Three Chimneys; the medieval church of Sant Pau del Camp

When I travel, I'm always curious about the rooms people live in and the conversations they have. In the City zeros right in on Barcelona. It's all about interiors – apartments, trendy restaurants, studios, etc – while also giving us a glimpse of the inner lives of three solidly middle-class, thirtysomething couples and the delightfully baffling Sofia, all friends, who harbour secrets and/or frustrations as they get on with their daily lives. It also captures the social mores of the present day. Only change: as of this year, no more smoking in bars and restaurants.
• Jamboree Jazz Club; Teatre Lliure; Casa del Llibre; Barceloneta; restaurant La Verònica

Barcelona loves Woody Allen but groaned through the showing I attended of VCB, a film most memorable for what Barcelona is not. Large and sumptuous homes with spacious gardens such as that of the artist Juan Antonio (Bardem) are unfamiliar to most Barcelonans. Nor do most artists drive vintage Alpha Romeos and have an airplane at their disposal. Nor is Juan's lusty, seductive character typical of a Catalan. But we can allow some poetic license because what the film gets right: fabulous shots of the city as we know it, covering the picturesque landmarks. And: the fact that many a Vicky has been "turned" by Barcelona. Woody captures the magic, but it's the city that does the seducing.
• La Sagrada Família; Parc Güell; Casa Milà (La Pedrera); Tibadabo; Miro Museum; the Ramblas; the Barri Gòtic; Els 4 Gats (The 4 Cats); Santa María del Mar; the Mediterranean near the Olympic Port

2005 saw the fully restored release of Antonioni's existential masterpiece, merging form and content in near perfect accord. David Lock (Jack Nicholson) begins his flight from himself in Africa where he takes another man's identity. This leads him to Barcelona where he meets the "Girl" (Maria Schneider) in the dark halls of Gaudi's Palau Güell. Although the city only takes up about 15 minutes of the film, it is memorable for capturing Barcelona before its great pre-Olympics makeover. One sees a seedy Ramblas of old as well as an unkempt Pedrera which actually has laundry hanging out on the spectacular rooftop. What has not changed is the cable-car ride from Montjuïc to the beach, except that now there is a beach.
• Hotel Oriente; the Ramblas; Umbráculo del Parc de la Ciutadella; Palau Güell; La Pedrera

Have you ever wondered what life is like for an Erasmus student? You'll get a good idea by following Parisian Xavier to Barcelona for his year abroad where he shares a flat with six other students in a chaotic melting pot of nationalities. But that is part of what the experience is all about. As the group bonds, eyes are opened to cultural differences (yes, Catalan not Spanish is the language at university). Sex is part of the scene, of course, putting to the test relationships back home. This is a fun and frothy film, featuring many of the hot spots in Barcelona, but it's a smart film, too, showing how for these students life will never be the same.
Via Laietana; Plaça Reial; Parc Güell; the beach at Barceloneta; the Ramblas; University of Barcelona; La Sagrada Familia; La Paloma; Bar Iposa

Set in the rough and grimy working-class outskirts of the city, we find Uxbal (Javier Bardem), attempting to raise his two children single-handedly while dealing with his mentally imbalanced wife and working with a ring that runs a sweatshop of Chinese immigrants for the manufacture of knock-off goods which are later sold on the pavement by the Senegalese in downtown Barcelona, known here as Top Manta. When Uxbal learns he is dying, he is moved to do something good. The brilliance of the film is that there is nothing sentimental about it thanks to Rodrigo Prieto's coarse-grained filming technique and the extraordinary performance by Bardem, who takes us to places where tour buses would never dare.
• Badalona (Carrer de Floridablanca); Sant Adrià de Besòs; Santa Coloma de Gramanet; Hospitalet de Llobregat; Plaça Catalunya; the Ramblas; Plaça Reial

After a series of humorous mishaps back in Uruguay, the beautiful young Elisa (Mariana Santángelo) is lured to Barcelona by one of her johns who promises her riches in the prostitution trade. The gutsy Elisa, who only wants her own beauty salon back in Montevideo, works to hold her corner in the Raval from Brazilian drag queens until she sees the dark side of her pimp, realises there is no money to be made and no way out. Part South American soap, part comedy, this is also a drama that looks intelligently at a very real problem on these very real streets not far from the Ramblas.
• The Raval; Plaça Reial; Passeig de Gràcia; Casa Batlló

Sometimes it serves to approach a city from its past. There are hardly any recognisable shots of Barcelona in Loach's homage to Orwell and the Spanish civil war, but the city played a central role even though, curiously, it rarely talks about it. In this fresh take, told in flashbacks, Englishman David Carr comes to fight for the Republican cause, landing with the worker militia POUM before moving to the communist brigade in Barcelona where he discovers how the Stalinists have hijacked the party. The notorious in-fighting among the left is marvellously portrayed in the May Days gun battle on the Ramblas where today, although they go unrecognised, one finds the Hotel Rivoli, Café Moka, and the Poliorama theatre.
• La Ribera; Carrer de les Trompetes; La Generalitat; the Ramblas

During the last decade of the cold war there was much anti-American feeling in Barcelona over NATO and America's presence in Spain. American buildings were targets for bombs and Yanquis Go Home graffiti appeared everywhere. Into this atmosphere comes a young American lieutenant with the 6th Fleet who stays with his cousin, an uptight businessman who at least is in tune with local feeling and embarrassed by his unwanted guest though he concedes to showing him the city – bars, discos, all of it – and introducing him to an attractive Catalan woman, who says, "You seem very intelligent for an American." Stillman delivers a humorous yet thoughtful look at Barcelona during the 1980s while providing splendid shots of the city.
• Avda Reina Maria Cristina, Montjuïc; the Cathedral; Roman Walls; the Columbus Monument; Passeig de Gràcia; Palau de la Música; El Born; Hospital de Sant Pau

(Note: Unfortunately, many fine films set in Barcelona are not available with English subtitles. One of these is Manuel Huerga's Salvador (Puig Antich), 2006, starring Daniel Brühl, the true story of the Catalan student revolutionary, who, in 1974, was the last person to be executed by garotte under the dictatorship of Franco. Highly recommended to those for whom the language is not a barrier.)

• Jill Adams is the editor of the online literary magazine The Barcelona Review