Venice, the setting for numerous film and television productions, has transformed into a real outdoor set with the arrival of Kenneth Branagh who occupied it with his crew at the beginning of 2023 to shoot his twenty-second feature film, Murder in Venice, in cinemas in Italy from September 14th.
The title, defined by Branagh as a “supernatural thriller”, is particularly evocative from a visual point of view, thanks to dynamic direction and photography which, in line with a macabre plot, enhances the dark component of the city which appears on the big screen more sinister than ever.
Where the film was shot in Venice
The location scouting work that preceded the filming of Murder in Venice it must have been quite exciting for Kenneth Branagh, who was busy with it production designer John Paul Kelly to scour the lagoon city in search of glimpses and corners that are recognizable yet not too well known to the international public.
The production designer said in some interviews that he shot the scenes in autumn and winterseasons that allowed the director to film fog and mist which naturally make the city disturbing.
Filming in Venice was a dream for the production designer The shape of water And The other king’s wifea possibility that opened up during the screenplay stage, when Michael Green changed the setting of Agatha Christie’s work from which the story is based (the novel Poirot and the Massacre of the Innocents), preferring Venice to the English countryside.
In Venice the filming took place at San Marco Basinthe city’s port, and in iconic locations, from Bridge of Sighsto St. Mark’s Squareto the Ducal Palaceto the Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, very famous for an external spiral staircase. Other locations are Palazzo Grimani and Palazzo Campo San Samuele. In many sequences (especially the spectacular aerial ones that close the film) it can be seen Consafelzi Bridgecharacteristic in its dark iron color.
The haunted palace at the center of the story
After visiting many buildings in search of the right one to film the story indoors, the filmmakers decided to build one from scratch in the Pinewood Studios from London.
The building in the film where Poirot’s murders and subsequent investigations take place was so important in the story that it was considered a character in itselfas happens in all horror stories set in a haunted place.
Kelly explained that he conceived and designed the building respecting the proportions and aesthetics of a true ancient Venetian palacecomplete with mooring for gondolas on the lower floor, main floor, where most of the choral scenes take place, and private rooms on the upper floors.
There is no shortage of views of the dark waters of the canals and secret passages that were added for the needs of the story. All interiors are fascinating, decadent, gloomy and gothic made with a palette of colors that ranges from yellow ocher, to bottle green, to carmine red, to black, shades that recall Venetian canvases. Also in this, in the continuity between scenography and artistic imagery, lies the visual value of the film in which location and scenography are significant, perhaps even more than the dialogues.
Source-tg24.sky.it