This paper comments on a diversity of concepts drawn from different authors and on David Harvey’s concept of “time-space compression” to set a discussion around the matter of cities and films or, rather, the different ways cities have been represented in films and in what sense the diversity of representations have affected the understanding of the cities themselves. Referring to the different ways films make use of urban imagery as signifying systems will establish how and why the cinematic city — and also the physical city — should be read as being formed by a set of representations. This paper also establishes a conversation between film studies and new cultural geography, a potentially useful cross-disciplinary conjunction. The intention is to reflect the interaction that takes place within these two theoretical fields, particularly in relation to the intrinsic relationship that exists between the city and its cinematic counterpart and the importance of this relationship for understanding spatial and temporal relations. Moreover, thinking about the post-modern condition, this paper will also discuss contemporary Brazilian cinema production by looking at the representation of urban space and its connection to the production of new paradigms for representing space (and time) and understanding cultural identity within post-modernity.