Backyard Hollywood

Forget those toothy rip-off merchants and their “star maps” of LA – if you want to see some real movie action, take the Ryanair tour of locations from Paris to Prague, says Mike Peake.

Deprived of any history stretching back much further than their great-grandaddies, Americans have become adept at faking it. If they need Stonehenge for a movie about druids (and starring Ian McKellen, obviously), they’ll knock up a phoney one right there in the lot. Tokyo, circa 1762? Hey – let us introduce you to our award-winning CGI team! But sometimes an ambitious producer with a proper budget will say “Look, there’s a better option”, and that better option is frequently the real-life streets and “gin-u-ine” history of Europe.

For well over 60 years, directors have been steaming across the pond and closing down streets so that they can yell “Action!” in a place where the walls might actually have stood for millennia. A place like Rome, for instance, where Hollywood recently camped en masse for the filming of Angels & Demons, the follow up to The Da Vinci Code, which is out this May and could just be one of 2009’s biggest hits.

So join us on our cinematic tour of Europe, which takes in France, Italy, Austria and more – and if you’re reading, Mr Spielberg, Ryanair stopover Tampere in Finland is pretty darn picturesque, if a little chilly. Bring your jumper.

Italy
CANNIBALS, FAKERS AND REALLY FAST MIN
He might not have impressed the smarmy film critics, but Ridley Scott gave us a truly wondrous portrayal of Florence in 2001’s Hannibal, the grisly follow up to The Silence of the Lambs. The Tuscan gem is a phenomenally beautiful city, and Lecter’s haunts are there for all to see. They range from the eye-catching 13th-century Palazzo Vecchio, where the good doctor throws Pazzi, the luckless local cop, to his death, to the eerie Fontana del Porcellino, the bronze statue of a boar where Lecter washes his hands after knifing a greasy pickpocket – you’ll find that at the Loggia del Mercato Nuovo.

Elsewhere in Italy, film buffs head to Turin to recapture the vibe of one of Blighty’s best ever films, The Italian Job (1969) (pictured). If you want to see the place where the gold was loaded into the Minis, head to Palazzo Carignano – word is that the producers had to pay the local Mafia to film there. Another movie that transports you straight to Italy is creepy 1999 flick The Talented Mr Ripley, which saw Matt Damon taking on the identity of Jude Law’s character somewhere near the Amalficoast. Key real-life spots are the island of Ischia, which is the fictional Mongibello in the film, and Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, which is portrayed as the Rome Opera House.

Meanwhile, if you weren’t too offended by the drivel that was Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, seek out Palazzo Reale in Caserta, 35km north of Naples. This was Queen Amidala’s palace on the planet of Naboo (obviously), and it also doubled up as the Vatican in Mission: Impossible III.

United Kingdom
Countless films have been shot in and around London – Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary, basically anything with Hugh Grant in it – while the UK’s most unlikely location credits include Farnham Wood, Surrey, for the opening battle scenes in Gladiator, and Liverpool, which doubled as Moscow in sub drama The Hunt for Red October.

Back in London, the lads’ hideout in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (right) is on Park Street in Borough, and you should seek out Westminster Bridge – ideally at sunrise on a midsummer’s morning – if you want to recreate the lonely start to 28 Days Later. And for Hugh Grant’s London, check out his character William Thacker’s house at 280 Westbourne Park Road – in Notting Hill of course.
RANDOM PUB QUIZ ANSWER #276: Malta was used as a distinctly unfriendly Turkey in Midnight Express.

Austria
CASTLES AND CABLE CARS
One of the finest, not to mention coldest (ahem), war films to emerge from Hollywood in the 1960s was Where Eagles Dare, which pitted Clint Eastwood (squinting Yank) and Richard Burton (stone-faced Brit) against a double-crossing colleague. The film centres around the small village of Werfen, which really exists and is about 40km south of Salzburg. The town was also featured in the “Do-Re-Mi” sequence in The Sound of Music – if you remember a ruddy big castle in the background you’re thinking of the right scene.

The castle is called Burg Hohenwerfen and, contrary to a bloody scene in Where Eagles Dare involving Richard Burton and an ice-pick , there’s actually no cable car. That bit was shot in Ebensee, about 50km north-east.

RANDOM PUB QUIZ ANSWER #768:
The hotel where a bored Bill Murray charms an equally bored Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation is the Park Hyatt Tokyo.

France
HIPPIES, VAMPIRES, AND BOURNE
Most big-budget movies needing a dash of French charm are shot in Paris, although classic 1980s comedy Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was filmed on the French Riviera, in Antibes, Cannes and Nice. Michael Caine’s luxurious digs were the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and you can drive right up to the front door.

In Paris, a stroll around Père Lachaise cemetery will take you to Jim Morrison’s final resting place, as seen in The Doors. In 1994’s Interview with the Vampire, Brad and Kirsten stay at a posh “hotel”, which is actually the Paris Opéra. And for a more frenetic view of the City of Lights, look no further than The Bourne Identity. It’s here that the amnesiac secret agent races through the city streets, trying to evade the gendarmes. Bourne sights worth seeing are his luxury apartment at 104 Avenue Kléber, near the Arc de Triomphe, and Hotel Regina (2 Place des Pyramides), where Bourne sends his lady to try to figure out who he really is.
RANDOM PUB QUIZ ANSWER #4,291: Stoke Park Club in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, was used in Bridget Jones’s Diary, Goldfinger and Layer Cake.

Czech Republic
BOURNE (AGAIN), BOND AND A VERY CONFUSING PLOT LINE
Prague has become one of Europe’s most filmed-in cities, thanks to its awesome architecture and the fact it can be passed off as just about anywhere in Europe (except Grimsby). Amadeus was largely filmed here, Johnny Depp pursued Jack the Ripper in From Hell, and it’s where Wesley Snipes battled vampires in Blade II.

Blockbusters like the hard-to-follow Mission: Impossible take us to Charles Bridge, and Prague is also the place where the Zurich bits of The Bourne Identity were shot. To see the hotel where James Bond beds down in Casino Royale, drive to the town of Karlovy Vary and Grandhotel Pupp (above) – aka “Hotel Splendide” in Montenegro.
RANDOM PUB QUIZ ANSWER #981: Gringotts bank in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was actually Australia House on Aldwych, London.

Star stalkin’
Where to watch
We’re not promising anything but, nudgenudge, these may well be the places to see the odd famous face this year.

PARIS Some of the Pink Panther 2 starring Steve Martin is said to be filming in the City Of Lights, as are scenes for a remake of Oscar Wilde’s Dorian Gray with Colin Firth and Emilia Fox.

LONDON The UK capital is famously playing host to Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law in Guy Ritchie’s take on Sherlock Holmes, due in November. It’s also said to be set for parts in The Boys are Back in Town (Clive Owen), and CIA thriller Green Zone, featuring Matt “How Do You Spell Typecast?” Damon.

MALTA This tiny, sunkissed island in the Med was used in hit films like Gladiator and Troy, and this year the historical theme continues with Agora, starring Rachel Weiss. Nice.

ROME It’s hard to get excited about this plot, where “a man engages in dramatic relationships with his wife, his agent, his mistress and his mother”, but the cast of musical Nine – apparently being filmed in the Italian capital – is hard to beat. The line-up is said to include Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Daniel Day- Lewis and Penelopé Cruz.