Lem’s writing is a more personal and reflective Sci-fi, closer to the “Hard Sci-Fi” that truly defines the genre. Both, i believe anyway, have their place

Pick up some Stanislaw Lem — read “Fiasco” first — and then see some of the movies made from his stuff. Then we’ll talk.

JS

Annie Hall – the battle between the upper West Side and LA.
Taxi Driver is the city that I moved into with my folks in 1967 – wonderfully dirty, graffiti covered, lots of street crime, and 42nd street and Time Square were totally seedy – I loved it. By 1970′s – when the movie takes place, it really bottoming out, but rents were still cheap.

You could add:
Mean Streets – I met Marty S. several times when he was making this – took him years. He was good friends with my neighbor, Fred Baker, one of the pioneer porn makers, but really a serious film maker who needed to feed the family. Fred, Marty, Harvey and Bobby all went to NY film school. MS is really rich in describing that part of town which was real haunt of mine. There were hippies, wise guys, and a threatened but resilient Italian community.
Three days of the Condor – this excellent Pollack film describes the City at the time of the birth of the World Trade Center – it had just opened. Lots of great footage. It also expressed the heightened paranoia of the time by my generation. It also introduced the technology of the time – real to real tape storage, line printers, and Uzis with silencers. Great performances all around – a gem.
Newtwork – Brilliant stuff about the major networks of the time; this marked the transition of the news from edited news and commentary to the talkshow format.

Great stuff!