Notting Hill

Hugh Grant in (")Notting Hill(")
For my British film I decided to watch Notting Hill, one of those quintessential romantic comedies from the 90s that had been recommended to me multiple times. The movie is a love story between Anna (Julia Roberts), a famous American actress, and William (Hugh Grant), an unknown British bookstore owner. I thought it might be interesting to see if the film would focus on the cultural differences between the two characters (especially since I’m soon going to be in Anna’s place), but unfortunately most of the differences seemed glossed over or excluded altogether.
In light of the film’s genre, I wasn’t at all surprised to see London (specifically the area of Notting Hill) as portrayed as particularly quaint, not really focusing on the typical fast-paced city life that I’m sure is present in much of London. The character William lives in this quiet area that has a very small-town feel to it, and the movie starts with him narrating about Notting Hill and how everyone there knows each other (William even works at a small travel bookstore!). The fact that the movie is a love story and that many of the scenes are set in parks, charming flats, and fancy hotels like the Ritz definitely fit with my romanticized image of London (and England in general).
On an interesting side note, I found earlier on New York Magazine’s travel section that Notting Hill in London is equivalent to the West Village and Fort Greene in New York City. This description helped give me a better idea (through a more personal reference) to what the area is truly like, and it seems fitting now that part of the West Village is seen as Little Britain. The movie also frequently featured the food market that runs down one of Notting Hill’s main roads, which looked a lot like a more varied version of the Union Square Greenmarket.
In terms of the overall plot of the movie, it didn’t alter my perception of the city very much only because the plot seemed separated from the setting. The story really could have happened anywhere that involved two distant locations; I don’t remember seeing any scenes that had to be set in London in order to understand them. However, by seeing William’s daily habits and how he interacted with his family and friends, it made me realize how similar American and British cultures really are. There were a few differences I noticed though; if William’s family is any indication of how Londoners really are, I noticed that they seem to be much more outspoken (occasionally crude, yet hilarious), and—as expected—tend to be much more witty and sarcastic in their everyday conversations. There were multiple examples of that characteristic dry humor that has always attracted me to British television shows and movies.
If anything, it was the behavior of the characters that slightly affected my perception of London; through their dialogue and actions I was able to better grasp what life is actually like in the city, something that photographs or paintings can’t usually convey as well. Like Tara Kolton says in her article “Representations of Western Tourism in Cinema,” “The visceral experience of the world through cinema cannot quite be met by reading about or looking at still images of a location.” I think that this is where the benefit lies in watching movies set in a different place regardless of their plot or how much you like the film itself. It gives you an introduction to or a greater sense of the location’s culture, which is, of course, always a good thing to know about before you travel to a new place.