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Fig. 17.4.
Liverpool Movie and Television Map (2002) (courtesy of Liverpool Council).
fi rst dedicated city fi lm commission) published
'Boomtown!', a map showing locations featured
in a range of fi lm and television productions
based in the city (Fig. 17.4). The 'movie map'
was part of a wider marketing campaign aimed
at promoting Liverpool - its architecture, land-
scape and locations - as a desirable destination
for tourists and fi lm-makers alike. I have else-
where conducted a more detailed exploration of
the relationship between the fi lm and tourist
industries in Liverpool and other destinations,
and the increasingly prominent role of fi lm in
the marketing of cityscapes as sites of spectacu-
lar consumption (Roberts, 2008). In the present
context, and in light of the discussions around
globalization, visuality and urban space that I
pick up in the next section, Liverpool's pre-
eminent status as 'world in one city' is well
illustrated in the following quote from the pro-
ducer of the Jacqueline de Pré biopic, Hilary
and Jackie (Anand Tucker, 1998):
'Boomtown! Liverpool Movie and
Television Map', 2002; Fig. 17.4)
This endorsement, which would not look out of
place on a tour operator brochure, reinforces the
central message that the bludgeoning aesthetics of
Liverpool: World in One City are designed to instil
in the would-be consumer of brand Liverpool.
Consisting of upward of 525 individual shots, the
500-s marketing missive rushes towards a ver-
tiginous crescendo of rapid-fi re images, the nar-
rator's Powerpoint-style bullet intonation fi ring
home the message that Liverpool = Culture =
Entrepreneurial City = Consumer City:
. . . Energy; Diversity; Imagination; Expression;
Risk-takers; Pioneers; Entrepreneurs; Inventors;
Writers; Reformers; a Place for Doing,
Changing, Trying and Learning; an Extraordi-
nary City; a City for the World; a Cultural City;
The World IN One City.
I came looking for a beach and they sold me the
whole city. International concert halls, Moscow
hotels, Parisian apartments, golden synagogues,
civic buildings, sand dunes and stately homes.
(Andy Patterson, producer of
Hilary and Jackie , quoted in
World in One City: Alex Cox's Liverpool
After the heady sugar rush that is Liverpool:
World in One City , the slow-paced and largely
conversational scenes that make up Alex Cox's
 
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