There’s no place on Earth quite like Venice. The floating city, with its towering domes, bustling canals, slender bridges, waterfront palazzos, and gliding gondolas, sometimes feels like a hazy, idyllic land from a half-forgotten dream. It’s why this glittering collection of islands has inspired everyone from Henry James and Edith Wharton to Casanova, Byron, Hemingway, and Cocteau, not to mention auteurs like Luchino Visconti and David Lean, who have turned their lenses on La Serenissima’s shimmering waters and honey-hued churches over the past half-century.
But just as filmmakers have been captivated by Venice’s jaw-dropping beauty, they’ve also been intrigued by its mystery – when night falls, the city transforms into a misty, deserted, and dimly lit labyrinth, where a sense of slowly simmering danger seems to lurk just beneath the lagoon’s surface. As a result, for every sun-drenched romantic comedy set in Venice, there are also plenty of chilling ones that focus on the city’s inherent terror. It’s this abundance of atmosphere and theatricality that makes it the perfect setting for the Venice Film Festival, the oldest film showcase of its kind, which kicked off on August 28 and runs until September 7.
In the spirit of this celebration of world cinema, we take a look at some of the most captivating titles filmed on these historic streets and waterways, from the 1950s until now.
Summertime (1955)
In David Lean’s ravishingly beautiful romance, a middle-aged secretary (played with precision by Katharine Hepburn) embarks on the solo trip of a lifetime to Venice – a journey that leads her to fall for the elegant Italian antique dealer played by Rossano Brazzi, who first catches her eye at a café in Piazza San Marco. Their romance involves an accidental dip in the lagoon, moonlight concerts in ancient piazzas, slow strolls across minuscule bridges, waltzing in canal-side nightclubs, and breezy gondola rides, as well as a bittersweet understanding that nothing beautiful lasts forever. The film also captures the ecstatic, wide-eyed wonder of seeing Venice for the first time, in a way that’s truly unique.
Death in Venice (1971)
A deep and lingering sense of sadness envelops you throughout Luchino Visconti’s sumptuously classic story of the ailing composer played by Dirk Bogarde, who arrives on the serene shores of the Lido and develops a platonic obsession with an angelic young man (Björn Andrésen). The camera focuses on the young man’s sublime beauty, but also on that of the city – resplendent with its rosy sunsets, tranquil waters, and artfully crumbling palazzos – while giving us tantalizing glimpses of its dark and decadent side.
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Never have Venice’s labyrinthine streets seemed more unsettling than when captured by Nicolas Roeg in this twisty, hair-raising thriller. At the heart of the plot are Laura and John Baxter (Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland), a haunted couple mourning the sudden and tragic drowning death of their young daughter. When they arrive in the city, where John has been hired to restore an ancient church at the height of winter, he begins to see the little girl everywhere – her cherry-red coat always lurking out of sight, behind abandoned palazzos and down cobblestone alleys. The moment when he finally encounters her is, to say the least, terrifying – and guaranteed to leave you looking over your shoulder on your next nighttime stroll through Venice.
The Wings of the Dove (1997)
Venice becomes the setting for secretive, sensual encounters in Iain Softley’s excellent adaptation of Henry James’s work, which follows Helena Bonham Carter as a calculating young woman living in early-century London who is determined to marry a penniless journalist (Linus Roache), despite the objections of her wealthy and domineering aunt (Charlotte Rampling). Enter a friendship with a vibrant American heiress (Alison Elliott) and, upon discovering the visitor is gravely ill, a scheme to set her up with her own lover in hopes he might inherit her fortune and become more eligible in the eyes of her guardian. As the free-spirited trio journeys to Venice, floating in gondolas, picnicking by the canals, and attending masked balls, sparks fly – and the city looks more dazzling than ever.
The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
After infiltrating the lives of his first victims, Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) and Marge Sherwood (Gwyneth Paltrow) on the Amalfi Coast, assuming a fake identity in San Remo, and disposing of Freddie Miles (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in Rome, the deceitful Tom Ripley (Matt Damon) sets off for Venice – the city he’s always most wanted to see and which, with its shadowy corners, hidden palazzos, and candlelit cathedrals, seems to suit him perfectly. (Keep an eye out, too, for red-lipped Paltrow, wearing a leopard-print coat and hat, lighting a cigarette at one of Caffè Florian’s outdoor tables.)
Casino Royale (2006)
Daniel Craig’s first appearance as James Bond takes the newly rugged protagonist to Madagascar, the Bahamas, and Montenegro, but the most captivating setting is undoubtedly sun-drenched Venice, where 007 and his beloved Vesper (Eva Green) escape for what resembles a makeshift honeymoon. But their happiness is short-lived – an explosive betrayal sparks a chase through Piazza San Marco, leading to a shootout in a collapsing palazzo that eventually sinks beneath the water. Unforgettable.
The Souvenir (2019)
In Joanna Hogg’s wonderfully intimate and semi-autobiographical coming-of-age saga, Julie, a sensitive young woman played by Honor Swinton Byrne, and Anthony, played by Tom Burke, travel to Venice – a trip remembered in dreamlike fragments: an image of the Grand Canal, cold, misty, and lit by lanterns; a shot of a silken opera gown trailing across a bridge as Julie rushes to catch up with Anthony. It’s brief, but a moment our heroine never forgets – and, like every trip to Venice, it feels like something out of a fairytale.
