Entering the Venetian Mood - Great Films set in Venice

I apologize for the recent lack of posts, but I've been away and busy with flats-hunting, and the organization of my week in Venice. 

I will publish a lot of material from the last exhibitions I saw, and I am also preparing a dedication to Bruce Springsteen's career after reading his biography.

So, while preparing all this, I decided to dedicate a short post to the most famous films set in Venice, in preparation of the Venice Film Festival.

Hope you enjoy it!

Let's go back to the 1950s and to one of the greatest authors of all time: Orson Welles and his Othello, which also won the Palme D'Or in Cannes in 1952.
Luchino Visconti celebrated Venice more than once: first, in his Senso (1954), reflecting the decadence of aristocracy. In 1971, he came back to shoot the adaptation of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, in which, decline, one of his favourite themes, is the center of the plot.

The melodrama Summertime (1955) directed by David Lean shows the adventures of a stunning Katharine Hepburn on the Lido.
Two years later Dino Risi will direct Venice, the moon, and you starring the unforgettable Alberto Sordi in the character of a fond gondolier.
In 1962 Joseph Losey will direct Eva starring the beautiful Jeanne Moureau.
One year later Gianfranco de Bosio directed The Terrorist, set in the winter of 1943. 

Back in 1935 also the musicals' stars Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers reconstructed Venice in the studio for Top Hat, one of the greatest American Musicals.

The famous Giacomo Casanova is the protagonist of Luigi Comencini's film Childhood, vocation, and first experiences of Giacomo Casanova, Venetian (1969) and also of Il Casanova by Federico Fellini (1976), which is considered one of his masterpieces.

Always in 1976 Joseph Losey will direct his Don Giovanni.

In 1982, Michelangelo Antonioni directed Identification of a Woman starring the Canal Grande as location.

San Barnaba's church is part of a mystery in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Marhsall Herskovitz directed Owner of her destiny in 1988, whose story takes us back to the Venice of the Fourteenth Century. This historical period was also used by Mauro Bolognini in the film La Venexiana in 1986.

If you love English comedies you must watch Blame It on the Bellboy (1992) by Mark Herman.

The hilarious Woody Allen also chose Venice as setting in the comedy Everyone says I Love You (1996).

A comedy of other kind is Bread and Tulips (1999), directed by Silvio Soldini.

The psychological thriller Toyer (2004) starring Juliette Binoche directed by Brian de Palma uses the Venice Carnival as background to a serial killer's story.

However, the film which suscitated most attention in the last years was probably the adaptation of The Merchant of Venice (2004) directed by Michael Radford, and starring Al Pacino, Kate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, and Joseph Fiennes, together with the film dedicated to the life of the composer Antonio Vivaldi: Antonio Vivaldi, a prince in Venice (2006), directed by J.L. Guillermou.

"Venice never quite seems real, but rather an ornate film set suspended on the water."

(Frida Giannini)

Aren't you already in love? 

My Favourite Films of All Time - Part 5

Amour, Michael Haneke (2012)

"Anne: It's beautiful.
Georges: What?
Anne: Life. So long."


Chocolat, Lasse Hallstrom (2000)

"You don't misbehave here. It's just not done, did you know that? If you don't go to confession, if you don't... dig your flowerbeds, or if you don't pretend, if you don't pretend... that you want nothing more in your life than to serve your husband three meals a day, and give him children, and vacuum under his ass, then... then you're... then you're crazy."


Bonnie and Clyde, Arthur Penn (1967)

"You know what you done there? You told my story, you told my whole story right there, right there. One time, I told you I was gonna make you somebody. That's what you done for me. You made me somebody they're gonna remember." 


This is England, Shane Meadows (2006)

 "I just wondered if you'd like to be my girlfriend. I think you're lovely."


Full Metal Jacket, Stanley Kubrick (1987)

"These are great days we're living, bros. We are jolly green giants, walking the Earth with guns. These people we wasted here today are the finest human beings we will ever know. After we rotate back to the world, we're gonna miss not having anyone around that's worth shooting."


 Mona Lisa Smile, Mike Newell (2003)

  
 "I've heard her called a quitter for leaving and aimless wanderer. But not all who wander are aimless, especially those who seek truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond the image. I'll never forget you."


Notting Hill, Roger Michell (2003)

 "Anna Scott: Can I stay for a while?
William: You can stay forever."


The Blues Brothers, John Landis (1980)

"They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God." 


Citizen Kane, Orson Welles (1941)

"Mr. Kane was a man who got everything he wanted and then lost it. Maybe Rosebud was something he couldn't get, or something he lost. Anyway, it wouldn't have explained anything... I don't think any word can explain a man's life. No, I guess Rosebud is just a... piece in a jigsaw puzzle... a missing piece." 



The Woman Next Door, Francois Truffaut (1981)

"I suspect that Mathilde and Bernard won't be buried together. if I had to select an epitaph for them it would be, "Neither with you, nor without you.", but I doubt whether I'll be asked."