This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to Venice.
Venice was the first true movie star. Back in 1896, the pioneering Lumière brothers captivated a new city in Paris with the world’s first film screenings of scenes of everyday life shot with fixed cameras. However, when assistant Alexandre Promio came to Venice, the history of cinema was remade again. While the Lumières simply held their cameras in place, Promio placed them inside a gondola and glided down the Grand Canal. Venice now unfolded in front of an audience. The picture itself suddenly began to move.
More than a century later, cities and movies are still inseparable. The film festival, which brings out the best in September each year, is just part of what connects this city with the art form. Consider also important Venetian films. A story of doomed love and intrigue that could only have been set in La Serenissima. So we present our favorite Venice movies that are the ideal way to experience the city without inviting overtourism.
“Don’t Look Now” (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in “Don’t Look Now” © TCD/Prod.DB/Alamy
Daphne du Maurier writes in a short story adapted by Nicolas Roeg into one of cinema’s most timeless two hours, that “the beauty of Venice rises before them, sharply set against the sparkling sky. I was drawing the outline,” he wrote. Maverick Rogue brings tourists to town, played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie, still grieving the death of his young daughter. But besides disrupting the storyline, he also played teasingly with Venice. The film was shot in an unseasonably cold winter to create an unforgettable atmosphere of melancholy, sex, and horror.
Instead of a sightseeing tour, he also confused our sense of what parts of Venice were noteworthy. The secluded church of San Nicolo dei Mendicoli played an important role. Meanwhile, fame elsewhere gained an additional dimension through cinema. For example, the ornate gate of fate through which Sutherland follows a small figure dressed in red actually leads to the (unseen) Palazzo Grimani Museum.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, YouTube
Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971)
Bjorn Andresen and Dirk Bogarde in “Death in Venice” © ScreenProd/Photononstop/Alamy
The pursuit continues in Death in Venice, based on Thomas Mann’s novel of obsessive desire. But unlike Don’t Look Now, director Luchino Visconti features the most luxurious and famous cities. The backdrop is the Lido Island, where the ailing composer Dirk Bogarde is staying at the luxurious Grand Hotel des Bains.
But this highly complex film also lurks in disorientation, as the literal pursuit of Tadzio, a teenage boy, causes frenzied chaos behind the Teatro La Fenice. Bogarde’s final scene on the beach is rocking. The price of desire was laid bare in the grandeur of Venice.
Where to watch: BFI Player, Amazon Prime, Apple TV
“Summertime” (David Lean, 1955)
“A bittersweet but technicolor explosion”: David Lean’s “Summertime” starring Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi © Alamy Stock Photo
Like Death in Venice, Summertime has a lot to say about loneliness. But the result is a more sunny, bittersweet Technicolor explosion. It became a catchphrase: “She came to Venice as a tourist and returned home as a woman!” “She” is Katharine Hepburn’s middle-aged Jane Hudson, who has come from Ohio to visit St. Mark’s Square and Campo San Barnaba.
The film was a true beast of the 1950s, shot entirely on location and with all the Venice landmarks real. And while this movie was dizzying, it was also self-aware. This has reportedly led to a surge in tourism, with director David Lean already nodding on-screen to the hordes of tourists pouring in from Santa Lucia train station. Behind the scenes, there were also warnings to tread carefully. It is said that Hepburn will suffer from chronic eye infections for the rest of her life after she was filmed falling into a canal in Campo San Barnaba.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Pluto TV
“The Comfort of Strangers” (Paul Schrader, 1990)
Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson in The Comfort of Strangers © Alamy Stock Photo
Like a swarm of tourists flocking to the city, a small army of talented actors and filmmakers descended on Venice for the psychodrama “Stranger’s Solace.” Directed by the acerbic Paul Schrader, the film was adapted from a novel by Ian McEwan with a screenplay by Harold Pinter. But where McEwan left the city of his book nameless, the film unfolds openly in a Venetian labyrinth of canals and lust, a story of two couples, sexual secrets, and death.
Two young drifters, played by Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson, are staying at the Hotel Gabrielli, where Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie starred in Don’t Look Now. As a wealthy couple with strange habits, Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren set up residence in the luxurious Loredan dell’Ambassiatore Palace. The costumes were by Armani and had plenty of twists. Critic Roger Ebert says: Venice is “the perfect city for this material,” he said.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime/MGM+, The Criterion Channel
Eva (Joseph Losey, 1962)
Director Joseph Losey taps into the “dark currents of Venice” with “Eva,” starring (from left) Stanley Baker, Jeanne Moreau, and Alex Levidis © Alamy
Before “Death in Venice,” the dark undercurrents of Venice also appeared on screen in “Eva.” Another story of desire and misfortune that begins in St. Mark’s Square. This time, the man he falls in love with is an astute Welsh novelist who is obsessed with Eve, an indifferent call girl played by Jeanne Moreau. Director Joseph Losey’s vision featured the Venice Film Festival, just one of many local wonders. But like other filmmakers after him, he took pleasure in visually capturing a Venice that was deserted and cold to the touch.
Where to watch: Hulu, The Criterion Channel
“Fellini’s Casanova” (Federico Fellini, 1976)
Donald Sutherland (right) in Fellini’s Casanova © Alamy Stock Photo
It may seem unwise to include a film shot entirely in Rome on this list, but Fellini’s Casanova still makes the list. As an example, the Maestro spent an eye-popping $7 million to make the Cinecittà Studio’s soundstage resemble 18th-century Venice. For both of them, Casanova is a story about Venice that is older than the other stories here. And third, the result is an unlikely sister film to Don’t Look Now, with Donald Sutherland once again set in Venice, but this time as a gaunt, overly made-up version of the great She has been cast in the role of a lover.
Viewing location: Blu-ray
“War” (Luchino Visconti, 1954)
“A ripe melodrama of war and heartache”: Visconti’s “War” © Alamy Stock Photo
Historic Venice was also the setting for Senso, a ripe melodrama of war and heartache in 1866. Opera La Fenice appears early on, before a romance develops between the lovesick Empress and a square-jawed Austrian lieutenant. Visconti named him Mahler in honor of the same composer whose work would later become the centerpiece of Death in Venice. The film also had a second legacy. When Teatro La Fenice was destroyed by arson in 1996, this film served as a reference for its reconstruction.
Viewing location: Rai Play, DVD/Blu-ray
“Casino Royale” (Martin Campbell, 2006)
Daniel Craig in “Casino Royale” © Alamy Stock Photo
Sean Connery rode a gondola in From Russia with Love. In Moonraker, Roger Moore tangles with the villains in St. Mark’s Clocktower. But Bond’s most memorable visit to Venice was for Daniel Craig’s first film, Casino Royale, where his final performance took place along the Grand Canal. Fans will remember that deep into the story Bond quits MI6 to work with his lover Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). Landscapes include Rialto’s Mercato di Pesce (Fish Market) and the Gothic Palazzo Pisani. But romantic satisfaction was short-lived, and soon the Venetian sea intervened.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV
“Italian for Beginners” (Lone Scherfig, 2000)
Danish director Lone Scherfig’s Italian for Beginners follows the rules of the Dog Me 95 movement © Alamy Stock Photo
Lorne Scherfig’s gentle comedy Italian for Beginners makes another late cameo in Venice, but the result is far from a Bond movie. Instead, the film was made based on the evil rules of the Dog Me 95 movement, co-founded by filmmakers Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier. The first of those rules required that all Dogme movies be shot on location. So when the story was told of language students from Copenhagen gathering in Venice, the cast and crew also went and took snapshots of the characters outside the Doge’s Palace.
Viewing location: Apple TV, DVD
“Othello” (Orson Welles, 1951)
Orson Welles and Suzanne Cloutier, director’s troubled adaptation of ‘Othello’ © Alamy Stock Photo
Orson Welles was still a young man when he arrived in Venice in 1949. Less than a decade after “Citizen Kane,” he was here to direct and star in an ill-fated version of “Othello.” The film was shot stop-start over the next three years during a funding crisis, and when it was finally completed, it was released piecemeal around the world. Still, the results were often surprising. This was especially the case when the stunning Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, with its external spiral staircase, was involved. (What’s even more jarring now is that Welles wears a form of blackface in the title role.)
The entire experience would be retold in Welles’ last full film, the 1978 documentary Filming Othello. It also seemed a little cursed. It was only a few years later that the trove of lost footage was discovered. These scenes featured an elderly Wells gaily waving to curious crowds from a gondola on the Grand Canal. If this scene looks familiar, it’s not all that different from the shot pioneered by Alexandre Promio in 1896, the shot that inspired the film adaptation of the story of Venice.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, The Criterion Channel
What is your favorite movie set in Venice? Let us know in the comments below. Follow FT Globetrotter (@FTGlobetrotter) on Instagram.
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