This article is part of a guide to venice by FT Globetrotter
Venice was the first true movie star. If we go back to 1896, the pioneering Lumière brothers dazzled Paris with the world’s first cinematographic exhibition: scenes of daily life filmed with a fixed camera. But cinema history was made again when his assistant Alexandre Promio arrived in Venice. Where the Lumières had simply placed a camera, Promio placed it inside a gondola, gliding down the Grand Canal. Venice was now displayed before the public. Suddenly, the images themselves were set in motion.
More than a century later, the city and cinema remain inseparable. The film festival that brings hyper-glamour every September is just part of what unites the city and the art form. Let us also consider the essential Venetian films: stories of doomed love and intrigue that could only have been set in La Serenissima. That’s why we present our favorite Venice films, each of which is the ideal way to experience the city without contributing to overtourism.
‘Don’t look now’ (Nicolas Roeg, 1973)
“The beauty of Venice loomed before them, clearly outlined against the resplendent sky,” wrote Daphne du Maurier in the story adapted by Nicolas Roeg for two of the most timeless hours in cinema. The great maverick Roeg brought tourists played by Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie to town, still mourning the death of their young daughter. But in addition to fracturing its story, it also played to make fun of Venice: filming out of season in a harsh winter to achieve a disturbing atmosphere of melancholy, sex and horror.
Instead of a sightseeing tour, we were also confused about which parts of Venice deserve our attention. The secluded church of San Nicolò dei Mendicoli played a fundamental role. Meanwhile, the fame of other places took on additional dimensions through the film. The fateful ornate doors through which Sutherland follows a small red-robed figure, for example, actually lead to the (invisible) Grimani Palace museum.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, AppleTV, YouTube
‘Death in Venice’ (Luchino Visconti, 1971)
Another chase awaits Death in Veniceadapted from the short novel about obsessive desire by Thomas Mann. But unlike Don’t look nowdirector Luchino Visconti presents the city in its most luxurious and celebrated form. The backdrop is the Lido, with Dirk Bogarde’s ailing composer staying at the opulent Grand Hotel des Bains.
But in a deeply curdled film, disorientation also lurks, as his literal pursuit of a teenager, Tadzio, leads to a frantic confusion behind the opera La Fenice. Bogarde’s final scene on the beach is hard to forget: the price of desire laid bare amid Venetian splendor.
Where to watch: BFI player, Amazon Prime, AppleTV
‘Summer Time’ (David Lean, 1955)
As Death in Venice, Summer It has a lot to say about loneliness. The result, however, is more joyful: bittersweet but still a technicolor explosion. “She came to Venice as a tourist and returned home as a woman!” was the slogan. “She” was middle-aged Jane Hudson, played by Katharine Hepburn, arriving from Ohio to view the Piazza San Marco, Campo San Barnaba and more.
The film was that rare beast of the 1950s, one filmed entirely on location, with every Venetian monument real. And as fast-paced as the film was, it was also self-aware. It was reported to have caused a surge in tourism, but director David Lean had already nodded on screen to the hordes of tourists pouring out of St Lucia station. Behind the scenes, there was also a warning to tread carefully: Hepburn was said to suffer from a chronic eye infection for the rest of her life after being filmed falling into a canal in Campo San Barnaba.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Pluto television
‘The Comfort of Strangers’ (Paul Schrader, 1990)
Like a mob of tourists descending on the city, a small army of talented actors and filmmakers descended on Venice for the psychodrama. The comfort of strangers. The director was the caustic Paul Schrader, adapting a novel by Ian McEwan, with a script by Harold Pinter. But where McEwan left the city of his book unnamed, the film unfolded openly in a Venetian labyrinth of canals and carnality: a story of two couples, sexual secrets and death.
The young adrift couple played by Rupert Everett and Natasha Richardson stayed at the Gabrielli Hotel, which also hosted Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in Don’t look now. As high-profile married couples with strange habits, Christopher Walken and Helen Mirren made their home in the sumptuous Palazzo Loredan dell’Ambasciatore. The costumes were by Armani and the problems were abundant. Critic Roger Ebert put it well. Venice, he stated, “is the right city for this material.”
Where to watch: Amazon Prime/MGM+, The criterion channel
‘Eve’ (Joseph Losey, 1962)
Before Death in Venicethe dark Venetian currents were also presented on the screen in Eve: another story of lust and disaster that begins in Piazza San Marco. This time, the obsessed man was a Welsh novelist, obsessed with the indifferent prostitute Eve, played by Jeanne Moreau. Director Joseph Losey’s vision encompassed the Venice Film Festival, just one of many local wonders. But like other filmmakers who came after him, he took pleasure in visually capturing a Venice empty of people and cold to the touch.
Where to watch: Hulu, The criterion channel
‘Fellini’s Casanova’ (Federico Fellini, 1976)
It may seem perverse to leave room on this list for a film shot entirely in Rome, but Fellini’s Casanova still makes the cut. For one thing, the maestro spent a staggering $7 million to convert the Cinecittà studios’ sound stages into a resemblance of 18th-century Venice. For two, Casanova is a Venetian story older than anything else here. And third, the result is an unlikely companion piece to Don’t look nowwith Donald Sutherland in Venice once again, but now cast as the great lover, emaciated and wearing too much makeup.
Where to watch: Blu-ray
‘Senso’ (Luchino Visconti, 1954)
Historic Venice was also the setting for Senso, a mature melodrama of war and anguish from 1866. The opera La Fenice appears early on, before romance blossoms between a couple in love. countess and a square-jawed lieutenant in the Austrian occupation army. Visconti named him Mahler in homage to the same composer whose work he would later make central Death in Venice. The film also had a second legacy. When La Fenice was destroyed by arson in 1996, the film was referenced for the reconstruction.
Where to watch: rai game, DVD/Blu-ray
‘Casino Real’ (Martin Campbell, 2006)
Sean Connery took a gondola in From Russia with love. In LunarakerRoger Moore tangled with a thug at the St. Mark’s Clock Tower. But Bond visited Venice most memorably in Daniel Craig’s first appearance in the role. Royal casinowhose final act took place next to the Grand Canal. Fans will remember that deep into the story, Bond left MI6 to partner with his girlfriend Vesper Lynd (Eva Green). The setting included the Mercato di Pesce (fish market) in Rialto and the Gothic Palazzo Pisani. But the romantic satisfaction was fleeting and the Venetian waters soon intervened.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV
‘Italian for beginners’ (Lone Scherfig, 2000)
The sweet comedy of Lone Scherfig Italian for beginners gave Venice another late cameo, but the result was a far cry from a Bond film. Instead, the film was made under the mischievous rules of the Dogme 95 movement co-founded by filmmakers Thomas Vinterberg and Lars von Trier. The first of those rules insisted that all Dogma films be shot on location. So when the story took a group of language students from Copenhagen to Venice, the cast and crew went too, with a snapshot of the characters outside the Doge’s Palace.
‘Othello’ (Orson Welles, 1951)
Orson Welles was still young when he arrived in Venice in 1949. Less than a decade later Citizen Kanewas here to direct and star in an ill-fated version of Othello. The film would be shot intermittently over the next three years, beset by currency crises and released piecemeal around the world when it was finally finished. Still, the result was often surprising, especially when it came to the impressive Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, with its external spiral staircase. (The most uncomfortable thing to see now is that Welles wears a kind of blackface for the lead role.)
The entire experience would be recounted in Welles’ last complete film, the 1978 documentary. Filming Othello. It also seemed a little cursed. Only years later was a treasure trove of lost images discovered. In those scenes, the elder Welles waving extravagantly to curious crowds from a gondola on the Grand Canal. If the sight seemed familiar, it was not so different from the shot initiated by Alexandre Promio back in 1896, the one that launched the story of Venice on film.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Apple TV, The criterion channel
What is your favorite movie set in Venice? Tell us in the comments below. AND follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter
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