Venice Goes to the Movies

The Tourist is a 2010 American romantic thriller film co-written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and starring Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, and Timothy Dalton. It is a remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer.  Debate arose over whether the film was a comedy or a drama. Henckel von Donnersmarck  stated it was neither genre, calling it "a travel romance with thriller elements..." but that if he had to choose between the two, he would choose comedy. A British woman, Elise Clifton-Ward, is being followed by French police who are working with Scotland Yard under the direction of Inspector John Acheson. Acheson has spent years hunting Alexander Pearce, a lover of Elise, who owes £744 million in back taxes, and is believed to have received plastic surgery to alter his appearance. At a Parisian cafe, Elise receives written instructions from Pearce: Board the train to Venice, Italy; pick out a man; let the police believe that he is Pearce...

“Don’t Look Now,” the Donald Sutherland thriller of 1973, is based on the Daphne DuMaurier story. John (Donald Sutherland) and Laura Baxter (Julie Christie) go to Venice, to work and heal, after the death of their young daughter.  John is working on the restoration of a church there. They are staying at the Europa Hotel, which is actually a combination of two Venetian establishments – the Hotel Gabrielle Sandwirth, Riva degli Schiavoni, Venice, a converted Gothic palace overlooking the San Marco Canal, east of Piazza San Marco. This photo of Hotel Gabrielli is courtesy of TripAdvisor The hotel's interior is actually Bauer Grunwald, San Marco 1459, Campo San Moise. West of Piazza San Marco. The church John is restoring is the San Nicolo dei Mendicoli, one of the oldest in Venice...  and restored – in real life – during the Seventies (though you won’t see the mosaic worked on in the movie, which was nothing more than a film prop).  T...

"Casino Royale" is Daniel Craig's first James Bond film. He doesn't yet have double-o status. But in typical James Bond style, he travels the globe. There’s no ‘Madagascar’ and there’s no ‘Miami’. And no ‘Montenegro’. Most of the film was shot in the Czech Republic (with sets at Prague's famous Barrandov Studios) and the Bahamas. But finally, he heads to Italy. The lakeside sanatorium at which Bond recovers is Villa del Balbianello, near the village of Lenno, about 15 miles north of Como on Lake Como's western shore. The villa, standing on the tip of a steep, wooded promontory, was the ‘Lake Country’ retreat in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Finally Bond and Vesper head to Venice, sailing their yacht along the Canal Grande between the Accademia and Rialto bridges. Bond and Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) sailed to Venice. While Vesper was standing at the helm of a yacht, Bond was writing a resignation letter on his laptop. As they were saili...

In "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade," Indy comes to Venice via a number of locations, starting in the high desert of Utah. From there, rocks give way to open grassland along the route of the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad in southern Colorado. The ‘Berlin’ locations can be found in London and in Buckinghamshire in the UK, and the school where Indy teaches can be found in Hertfordshire. Also in the UK is the classically grand setting for the ‘Berlin’ rally, where Indy manages to get the Führer’s autograph, which is Stowe School in Buckinghamshire. This former home of the Duke of Buckinghamshire, set in grounds landscaped by Capability Brown, is four miles north of Buckingham town itself (a few miles west of Milton Keynes) And then, at last, the search for the Grail takes Indy to Venice, where he finds a clue in the Church of San Barnaba, Campo San Barnaba... ...in the laidback Dorsoduro district... ...across the Canal Grande from St ...

The story focuses on Jane Hudson (Katharine Hepburn), a single, middle-aged  "fancy secretary") from Ohio. She is on her summer vacation, enjoying her lifelong dream of a vacation in Venice after saving up money for years. During the ride on a  vaporetto  to the Pensione Fiorini, she meets two fellow Americans, Lloyd (MacDonald Parke) and Edith (Jane Rose) McIlhenny. At the hotel, they are greeted by Signora Fiorini (Isa Miranda), a widow who transformed her home into a pensione after World War II. Also staying at the property are Eddie Yaeger (Darren McGavin), a young American painter studying art, and his wife Phyl (Mari Aldon). The Pensione Fiorini does not actually exist, and was more a construction the the director's imagination.  The front door of the pensione opens to Rio dei Bareteri, in the sestiere of San Marco, in the heart of the Merceria.  The balcony in Miss Hudson's room is way up on Rio de la Salute, in Dorsod...