Lingering at the window display of Tiffany & Co on Fifth Avenue. Feeding birds from the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral. Wading into the Trevi fountain. In just about every major urban centre, the streets are overlaid with celluloid.

On Instagram, Christopher Moloney shows us where cinema and the city meet. A writer and cinephile, he juxtaposes scenes from classic films with the places as they exist today. “There’s a cliche that often ‘the location’ is a character in a movie – my favourite films tend to be the movies where that’s true,” he says. “Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen’s early films are very New York. Alexander Payne really loves Nebraska. John Hughes loves Chicago.

“It’s really more about the movies for me. It still puts a smile on my face to see a scene I’ve loved ‘come to life’.”

The execution is striking in its simplicity. “Either I’m watching a movie or television show, recognise a location and print off a picture, or I walk past something that I recognise from a movie and go back later.” Moloney uses the camera on his iPod Touch. “I am not a technical person. Just to show you how long I’ve been doing it – my first photos were done with my Blackberry.”

He came to Instagram as @moloknee after his shots highlighting film locations in New York City on his film photo website Filmography caught the attention of Vogue. “They asked me for the link to my Instagram and I was like, ‘My what now?’, and started one.” Now he posts to Instagram first, “retiring” them on his site a few days later.

Whenever he goes to a new city, he researches what films were shot there – but sometimes they find him. Moloney grew up near Toronto, lived for nearly 15 years in New York City and is now based in Atlanta, known as the Hollywood of the south for its lucrative tax breaks for the entertainment industry. “It’s exciting for me to realise that a street or building I’ve passed for years was the location of a movie and I never realised it,” he says. “It happens a lot in those places.”

Guardian Cities brings together the best in urban photography on Instagram at @guardiancities. Share your shots with us on Instagram with the hashtag #guardiancities

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (New York City, US):

The Seven Year Itch (New York City, US):

Doctor Who (New York City, US):

Annie Hall (New York City, US):

Kill Bill (Los Angeles, US):

Rain Man (Palm Springs, California, US):

American Psycho (Toronto, Canada):

Rocky (Philadelphia, US):

The Talented Mr Ripley (Rome, Italy):

Tomb Raider (Angkor Wat, Cambodia):