30 Sunday Jan 2022
Posted in No Time to Die, No Time to Die
Tags
007, filming location, Great Britain, James Bond, James Bond location, London, movie location, No Time to Die, UK
Real filming locations together with screens of scenes filmed in these places. Film scene on top and my location photo at the bottom.
23 Sunday Jan 2022
Posted in Brigitte Millar, No Time to Die, Spectre
Tags
007, actress, Brigitte Millar, Dr. Vogel, interview, James Bond, No Time to Die, Spectre, Vogel
Brigitte Millar is an award-winning actress known to James Bond fans as Dr. Vogel in ‘Spectre’ and ‘No Time to Die’ (click here to watch Brigitte Millar in ‘Spectre’). Find more on her website: www.brigittemillar.com.
Piotr Zajac (bondlocations): Thank you very much that you agreed to meet and talk about your performances in James Bond movies. At first I would like to ask how you became an actress. As far as I know it is rather unusual story.
Brigitte Millar: When I did my A-Levels in Germany I was considering studying fine arts, but my parents didn’t want to hear about that. They thought that I wouldn’t be able to earn a living. I studied languages and then I was working as translator. After a short while, I found that office work was not very interesting. I was actually quite unhappy, because it was so unfulfilling. I eventually retrained and worked in the fitness industry as a fitness instructor at first and then as a fitness manager. Then I was made redundant from my job because the whole company was restructured. My brother said: ‘It is your chance to do something artistic’. I wanted to do a dance course, but it was fully booked. But there were spaces available on an acting course, so my brother said: ‘Why don’t you do this acting course’? At first, I wasn’t keen on it as I didn’t want to do any acting, I wanted the dance. In the end I did the acting and I loved it very much. The rest as they say is history….
It was a long way for you to become an actress. Can you say now that your dream came true?
Coming to acting was a real life saver for me because I had a real midlife crisis and I didn’t know what to do.
I guess that your experience from fitness industry could help you on set of ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ when you had to fly.
Yes, on a broomstick. The broomstick was mounted on a crane. It could move up and down, sideways and swing around. It was quite high up and it was really scary at first. Once I was up there and learned how to fly, it was a lot of fun. There was a tennis ball in front of me as a focal point that I had to follow with my eyes.
You played in the last two Bond films. How did you get the role in ‘Spectre’?
My agent submitted me to Debbie McWilliams, who is the casting director for Bond. I got a little speech in English that I had to learn for the audition. It had nothing to do with Bond. I came to the CDs office and did the speech. Then she said: ‘You are far too beautiful to be a villainess. Go to the bathroom and wipe off all your makeup.’ So I went to the bathroom to wipe off my makeup and did the speech again. I think that I really got into it. I enjoyed it so much and it must have come across, so they offered me the role.
Am I right saying that you are James Bond fan?
I’ve been watching Bond movies since I was a little girl.
Does it mean that as James Bond fan you wanted to be a part of the franchise so you asked your agent to submit you for a role in the movie?
No. He just submitted me for the role, because Dr. Vogel is a German scientist and I am German and speak German obviously. I was suitable for the role. I was also in the right age bracket.
So it was not on your request?
No. He did it by himself before telling me.
So it was nice surprise for you.
Yes, a very nice surprise.
Were you very nervous during that addition because it was for Bond movie?
Yes, I was a little nervous. I felt confident in the speech and I knew what I was going to do. I’m usually much more nervous afterwards, because then comes the waiting.
How long did you have to wait?
I think it was about 10 to 12 days.
Was the audition before they have started filming or was it during filming already?
They were already filming.
How much time has passed between your addition and your appearance on the set?
I think the audition was in January and we were filming in February.
Were you working on the set at Pinewood Studios?
Yes, we were filming a lot at Pinewood Studios, but we were also in Rome for the funeral scene.
How much time did you spend in Rome?
I think it was 4 or 5 days. We were filming for 2 days.
At Pinewood Studios you were filming the sequence in Palazzo Cardenza. I saw photos of the set. It looked amazing.
Yes, it was a hudge set.
You were speaking German. Is it right that it was first written in English?
Yes. I got it in English first. They asked me if I wanted to translate it myself. Of course I wanted to translate it myself. Writing my own nouns. (smiling)
So your speech was based only on what was in the script?
I translated it and changed the sentences a little bit to fit them to the character. There were very long sentences in the script. I just chopped them up a little bit to make them shorter and more precise because Dr. Vogel is a scientist. She is a woman in a room full of men so she wants to make it short to get everybody’s attention and to dominate the whole scene, to show her power. (smiling)
Did you look for an inspiration in old James Bond movies?
Yes, mainly on Rosa Klebb and Irma Bunt. They were my role models. I imagined myself to be the ‘niece’ or the ‘cousin’ of Rosa Klebb and Irma Bunt. A younger and more modern version of those two ladies.
Did you get detailed directions from the film director Sam Mendes how to play Dr. Vogel?
He only gave me one note. He said that when Oberhauser comes in, Dr. Vogel starts to feel really nervous, but then she gets more confident and continues the speech.
How long were you filming the sequence?
I was on set for about 7 days.
How long were the shooting days?
The days were very long. I‘d usually get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and read and rehearse my lines. The driver was to pick me up at about 5-5.30 a.m and I was on set by 6.30-7 a.m. One day, I was in my trailer taking off my costume. It was around 9 p.m. already. Somebody knocked on my door and said: Brigitte, you can’t take off your costume just yet. We need you to come back on set, because we had a technical problem with the camera. We need to do the scene again’. So I had to go back on set and do the speech 3 more times. It took roughly 45 minutes. There were around 100 extras around the table. They also had to be on the set very early and must have been so fed up and so tired. Naturally, they wanted to go home as soon as possible. I’m sure they were all thinking: ‘How long is this gonna take. I hope she’s not gonna fluff her lines and we have to do it over and over again.’ I did the speech flawlessly without any mistakes at all. By 10 o’clock we were all allowed to go home. I was at home about midnight and at 4 a.m. I had to get up again for the next day of filming. I had to do that speech everyday, because Daniel Craig likes to do 12-15 takes per day. I’ve done that speech for 5 days, so I must have done the speech more than 50 times. Eventually it feels like groundhog day, because in your brain nothing moves forward, you do the same thing over and over and over again. (smiling..)
Did you feel the pressure when you were acting in front of so big number of people on set?
Yes, there was a lot of pressure. A lot of attention was focused on me during the speech. Luckily, I was doing it in German so nobody could understand. (smiling) I think I fluffed my line only twice for the whole week of filming.
There was a stunt scene. One of the stuntman fell on the table near the place where you were sitting.
Yes, the stuntman was wearing a harness. At first, they lowered him slowly to try it out and see how it all worked. Then he came down very, very fast. He only had a split of a second to turn his head, or he would have fallen on his face and broken his nose.
Did he fall on the wooden table?
No. There was a mat on the table to absorb the impact of the fall.
Did you have a felling after ‘Spectre’ that you would return on the set of James Bond movie?
Yes, because my character didn’t get killed in ‘Spectre’. I wasn’t sure, but I was thinking that it would make sense for her to come back in the next James Bond movie.
When did you get confirmation that you would be in ‘No Time to Die’?
That was in summer 2019. The casting director, Debbie Mcwilliams e-mailed me asking, if I would like to come back. I said yes, I would love to come back. I think we were supposed to film in July but it was pushed back until October.
The whole Cuba set was built at the backlot of Pinewood Studios. I remember that it was very cold when you were filming there.
It was freezing. The dance hall had stone walls and stone floors and it was very cold. The wardrobe ladies were so kind to us…they gave us big fluffy Ugg boots and thick winter anorak to keep us warm.
In the scene your character died and you had to fall down on the floor.
Yes, it was quite dangerous. The floor was very cold and slippery, because of the mist coming down from the ceiling. I was wearing really high heels and an evening gown and wondering, how I could convincingly fall to the ground. Eventually, I asked for a stunt man. He was standing in front of me and I put my arms around him and when he fell down, he took me with him. Under his suit he was wearing padding to protect him and I fell on top of him, so as not to hurt myself.
You had to fall down but also act as if you were dying. How did you prepare for that?
Cary Fukunaga asked me to think of a fish that has been taken out of the water and can’t breathe and is gasping for air. So that is what I did.
You also had special makeup for that scene.
Yes, the make up artists applied special make up that hardens so that is stays in place. that makeup off because it harden. It was almost like glue that sticks to your face. It makes the face feel very hard and doesn’t allow any facial expressions. You can’t peel it off because you would rip off your skin. We had to wait until the evening when the makeup artist took it off again. They put on a face cloth soaked in a special solution, which softens the makeup, so that it can be taken off safely.
How long did it take to put the makeup on and then take it off?
It was probably an hour to put it on and an hour to take it off.
Was it only one day with makeup?
I think it was 2 or 3 days.
Did anybody forget to take off the makeup before going home?
No, thankfully that didn’t happen. (smiling)
I was wondering how much you knew about the plot of ‘Spectre’ and then ‘No Time to Die’ when you were filming.
I didn’t know anything about the plot as I didn’t get the script. I only got my scene.
So you didn’t know much about your character.
No, I made up my own background story.
Can you tell more about working with two different directors and their attitude to the character?
I think that, for Sam Mendes, Dr. Vogel was actually quite an important character, in the sense that she was one of the key figures in Spectre. He just let me get on with it and gave me only one note. Sam Mendes can look at an actor or actress and know whether they need direction or not. He’ll concentrate only on actors, who need directions. I also got on very well with Cary Fukunaga. My scene in NTTD was completely improvised. It was not in the script. Cary was trying out different things, which I enjoyed very much. He gave me a lot of useful advices and that was fantastic. I love working with both Cary and Sam, although they are very different directors. Sam Mendes is a theatre director and Cary Fukunaga is a film director. Two very different directors with very different approaches, but both really good and strong.
January 12th 2022
07 Sunday Nov 2021
Posted in London, No Time to Die
Tags
filming location, James Bond, James Bond location, London, movie location, No Time to Die, UK, Whitehall
There were only a few scenes in ‘No Time to Time’ that were shot on location in London unlike in ‘Spectre’ or ‘Skyfall’. One of them was the scene with James Bond (Daniel Craig) arriving at MI6 headquarters in Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Previously James Bond was driving such car in ‘The Living Daylights’.
The scene was filmed on June 30th 2019 at Whitehall Ct. The car was parked near number 4. Daniel Craig walked towards Ministry of Defence that doubled for MI6 headquarters.
While filming the scene, Nicola Dove who was still photographer on the set of ‘No Time to Time’ (Interview with Nicola Dove – ‘No Time to Die’ still photographer), took an iconic photo of Daniel Craig. It became an advertisement for Omega watches. It was also the first look image made available to the press.
Whitehall Ct is located in the very center of London. No wonder it is close to other filming locations known from James Bond franchise. In the next photo you can see the place where Bond parked the car in ‘No Time to Die’ in the right bottom and the Old War Office on the left. It was the MI6 headquarter in ‘Octopussy’, ‘A View to a Kill’ and ‘Licence to Kill’. The dome tower was also presented at the end of ‘Skyfall’ when James Bond was standing on the roof and looking at the London panorama. (‘Old War Office Building as MI6 HQ‘).
Another ‘Skyfall’ location can be found behind the Old War Office building. If you walk down the Whitehall Ct in the direction from which the Aston Martin V8 Vantage arrived, you will see the Embankment Place round the corner. The scene with Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) leaving the subway station was filmed there (‘Skyfall’ at Embankment Station in London).
Go to LOCATIONS GALLERY – ‘NO TIME TO DIE’ to see location photo compared with the movie scene.
Source:
– www.mi6-hq.com
28 Sunday Mar 2021
Posted in The Living Daylights, Vienna
After opening sequence James Bond went to Bratislava in Czechoslovakia. At the time when ‘The Living Daylights’ was filmed getting permission to film in communist bloc countries was very difficult. Therefore Vienna in Austria was doubling for Bratislava in the movie.
James Bond (Timothy Dalton) and Saunders (Thomas Wheatley) were sitting on a balcony in a concert hall. Bond was looking at general Koskov (Jeroen Krabbe), who was supposed to be transported to the West. He also noticed cellist Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo). Just before the concert interval 007 and Saunders left the concert hall and went to the Mi6 safe house in a building across the street. Soon general Koskov went out into the streets through the toilet window. Bond saw an assassin in a window above the entrance to the concert hall. It was cellist Kara Milovy.
The sequence began with establishing shot of the street and philharmonic building. It was Währinger Strasse in Vienna and the opera house called Volksoper. The camera was directed towards the viaduct on which the metro runs. In the film there was a small tree in front of the Volksoper. I was visiting Bond locations in Vienna in 2020, so it was 33 years after filming. During this time, the tree has grown, but the building hasn’t changed much.
Entrance to Mi6 safe house was filmed at the intersection of Währinger Strasse and Schlagergasse in front of Volksoper. The hammer and sickle that were seen in the film were mounted on the balcony shown in the photo.
General Koskov went through the window that is shown in a photo below. It is located to the left of side entrances to the Voksoper.
James Bond saw Kara Milovy with a gun in a window above main entrance to the building. It is the one below ‘Volksoper’ sign.
James Bond helped general Koskov to escape from Czechoslovakia to Austria by sending him across the border in the Trans-Siberian pipeline, but at first they traveled by car.
Night ride was filmed in the center of Vienna. They went out on Traungasse.
At the end of the street, right before the arched passage, the car turned left onto Lagergasse
Later the Audi drove across the Doktor-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz and entered Sonnenfelsgasse.
Later in the film James Bond returned to Bratislava to follow Kara Milovy. He saw her arrested outside her house. She left cello case in a tram. Bond took it to the public toilet at the tram depot to see what was inside without any witnesses.
The scene in which Kara was arrested was filedm at the tram stop at Antonigasse. After over 30 years it was easy to recognize the location. Only trams are completely different from what we saw in the movie.
The tram depot where Bond got off the tram has been closed down over 20 years ago. There are no more tram tracks but the building at Kreuzgasse still exists. Currently there is a gym inside the building.
You can find the building where the entrance to the public toilet was filmed right next to the former tram depot. As you can see in a photo below it is not in use anymore.
Kara returned to her flat. There was James Bond waiting for her. They both escaped in Bond’ Aston Martin but first they had to fool KGB agent waiting in a car in front of her house. Bond was the first to leave the building. Kara went to the phone booth. She dressed the cello case with her clothes. She ran away when a tram was passing. KGB agent was convinced that Kara was still in the phone booth.
The entrance to the building in which Kara lived was located at Antonigasse 92.
James Bond parked his Aston Martin at the intersection of Antonigasse and Sommarugagasse. It was roughly where the silver car is pictured in a photo below. Phone booth was located to the left of the orange delivery truck in that photo.
The scene with James Bond and Kara Milovy driving away was filmed at Schlagergasse.
Go to LOCATIONS GALLERY – ‘THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS’ to see locations photos compared with movie scenes.
Sources:
– jamesbondlocations.blogspot.com
– „The Living Daylights” Audio Commentary, „The Living Daylights” Special Edition, Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation, 2006.
12 Saturday Dec 2020
Tags
filming location, Great Britain, James Bond, James Bond filming location, James Bond movie locations, London, Skyfall
Real filming locations together with screens of scenes filmed in these places. Film scene on top and my location photo at the bottom.
06 Sunday Dec 2020
Posted in Andreas Wisniewski, The Living Daylights
Tags
actor, Andreas Wisniewski, Behind the Scenes, filming location, interview, James Bond, Necros, Stonor House, The Living Daylights
Andreas Wisniewski is an ex-ballet dancer, actor and film director. For film enthusiasts and James Bond fans he is well known for his portrayals of Necros in ‘The Living Daylights’.
Piotr Zajac (bondlocations): How did you got the part in “The Living Daylights”? Did you take part in casting or did you get a call from the producers?
Andreas Wisniewski: It went pretty much the usual way. With the big film projects you don’t meet anybody unless you have an agent, who is already representing you. My agent submitted me but it was not enough to get the job of course. The agent always thinks that you are right for the part (laughing) but there are casting people and the producing site that have to think that you are right. You have to audition so I went to audition. I made a screen test. Escpecially if you are young and new and there isn’t a lot of material that people can see you in they want to know if you can do this.
I’ve heard that according to the script Necros looked exactly like you.
Yes. The character was described like I looked. They were just astonished. That was of course nice but not enough. I still had to convinced them that I could do it. Screen test was just as usual. I did a little scene and they had recorded it, so they could discuss about it later without me.
The first scene that you were filming was the fight in the kitchen with Bill Weston. Did you fight according to choreography or was it rather spontaneous? How long did you train for that?
No, it was totally choreographed. The fight was choreographed to the detail. I had a few days of training before that which wasn’t really very much. I was a ballet dancer and at least I had some sort of physical awarness that I could fake a lot of things. That is what I did.
Did you bring your own ideas to the choreography of the fight?
I didn’t have any ideas at that time. I was blissfully ignorant of it all. I am sure that you know that for a stuntman it is not the greatest experience to be doing this with someone who is not fully trained. Bill broke a finger in the fight. I also slipped once and I hit him on the cheekbone and he was knocked out for a few seconds. That is the hazard of the profession.
Did you film the fight in Pinewood Studios or on location in Stonor House?
We trained in Pinewood, but the fight was filmed at Stonor House.
In the fight sequence there was a parrot present in the room. As far as I know it was exactly the same bird that we could see in ‘For Your Eyes Only”. Is it true?
I’ve never even heard about this. I’ve given fair amount of interviews about this over the years and some of the questions always keep repeating as you can imagine, but I’ve never heard anybody asking about the parrot.
Your character had a walkman. Is it right that in reality when you were filming you were not listening to any music?
There was no music. They don’t want you to do that sort of stuff because you should be receptive to instructions. Who knows, maybe the director wants to shout something at you. They want you to be able to pay attention.
You were filming at Stoner House. Also the scene with explosion. How was it done that the buidling was not damaged?
This is an art in itself how to do make fake explosions. I wasn’t particularly told about it but they must have taken all the windows out and replaced them with special glass. That would have been catastrophy if anything would happen to the Stoner House that is a listed building.
Later in the film we could see you in a scene at the swimming pool. Was it really a mansion that belonged to Malcom Forbes?
Yes. In Tangier. Nice property with a beautiful view.
Did you have an access to the swiming pool only?
No, I think we had a ground floor of the house that we could use. I don’t recall seeing anything else.
It looked like a good place for relax. Was it like on vacation or was it rather hard work only?
It was a bit of both. It was focused work. It has to be because there is a lot of money in stake, but the whole crew was so relaxed with each other that it never felt like hard work. I’ve never heard anybody shouting on that set or anything alike. Of course there were long shooting days sometimes. You know, the good work should always be fun in my book. Working hard doesn’t interfere with that. I remember beeing out in town in Tangier so we had plenty of free time to make some excursions and things like that.
Do you have any interesting memories from Morocco?
Indeed. Tangier was actually not the most impressive. We were filming the desert scenes in Ouarzazate doubling for Afghanistan. That was beautiful. It was my first time in Marocco and it was quite a different world.
As far as I know the film studio in Marocco was different than most of film studios in the world.
It wasn’t a studio at all (laughing). There was just a wall with a sign. It looked like there was gonna be something, but we walked through the gate and then it was just desert again. It was very funny.
What about the banquet scene where General Pushkin was attacked? It looked as it was in Morocco. Was it filmed there?
No. It was filmed in a building in England. It belonged to the Guiness family (Elveden Hall in Elveden, Suffolk). That is how you can be misled. You thought it was Morocco, but it was just up from London a few hours drive.
Another scene that was filmed somewhere else than the audience would expect was death of Saunders. He was squeezed by the door. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios, not at Prater in Vienna.
Yes, because the mechanism had to be built. That type of things usualy has to be done in the studio. They couldn’t shut the Prater park for that sort of things for too long.
Did you go to Vienna for filming?
Yes. There is a scene in which my character is a baloon seller. That was filmed in real location at Prater in Vienna.
Was it closed for shooting? People in background were extras or tourists like on the set of ‘Moonraker’ in Venice?
It was closed. With the real audience when they see the camera they tend to looke at the camera. It doesn’t work.
The last sequence with your character was the fight with James Bond in the air. I know that stuntmen from BJ Worth’s team were filming on location and you were filming in the studio with a mockup of the plane.
They shot the real stunt first. I did all other stunts in this film. Parachuting could be fun. I could learn this, but they didn’t let me do it. That was a good thing. When I saw it in the end I was glad I didn’t do it. It was crazy. They shot the real version first and then we did close ups in Pinewood. There was a mock up as you said. Half of an airplane was hanging there. They’d painted the total horizon and built a landscape from gypsum. Tim Dalton and I were hanging in the net in the air and we were getting down for each shot. In those days there was no non linear editing. Director John Glen had a cut on a Steenbeck and he was looking how to shoot close ups so they would be matching with what stunt guys did. It took three days to do that. That was slow process. That was the hardest work in the whole film because we were just hanging in the net for hours at a time.
So it was even harder than the fight?
Oh yes. The fight wasn’t hard work. You get a kick and then you get a break. That is no sweat. We were hanging in that net for an hours. There were harnesses and things like that so there was just no way to get out quickly. Waiting for the next take was not even comparable to the fight. Much harder work. I remember that we’d spent around an hour in the net and Tim said: ‘Dude, I’m wrecked already’ not knowing that we would be doing this for three days. That was far harder than any of the rest. That was in fact the only hard physical work that I recall. I was young, I was in good shape. I was a ballet dancer. Dancing is very hard physical work.
When was that sequence filmed?
It was filmed at the very end. The last day of that was the end for me.
You mentioned Timothy Dalton. How do you remember working with him?
I really appreciated Tim. I think he is a fabulous actor. I liked what he wanted to do with it, which was obviously important. I’ve been playing sort of smaller parts when you have to fit in what the leads are doing. He wanted to take it much more seriously than had been the case with Roger Moore. I appreciated that. Working with him was super professional. It was big movie making. It was filming until everything was as good as we could get. That was great.
How about the director John Glen. Did you have to stick precisely to his vision or you had a lot of artistic freedom?
He had some ideas that he wanted to see. There are always some things that you don’t know and you have to adjust to it because you will not see it until the day. The director can go and see the set or he can talk to actors and ask them to put on costumes but it doesn’t all come together really until the shoot. There is always some sort of leeway to make the most of it. Of course as an actor I like to have some ideas of my own. I tended to get those with the second unit which I sometimes worked with. The director was letting us to do a bit more stuff because if it didn’t work we just did it again with less stress than on the first unit.
Thank you for the meeting and for sharing with me your stories from the set of ‘The Living Daylights’.
November 26th 2020
22 Sunday Nov 2020
Posted in The Living Daylights, Vienna
Tags
Austria, filming location, James Bond, James Bond location, Schönbrunn Palace, The Living Daylights, Vienna
James Bond (Timothy Dalton) and Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo) arrived to Vienna and took a carriage to the hotel. On the way they passed among others Schönbrunn Palace, former summer residence of the Habsburg family.
The horse-drawn carriage with Bond and Kara traveled along a line of trees towards the southern facade of the palace.
When they were passing in front of the palace an orchestra was playing on the balcony, and couples were waltzing on a stage.
While visiting the Schönbrunn Palace you can enter the balcony where the orchestra was playing (see below).
The stage where couples were waltzing was located below the balcony on a wide strip sprinkled with gravel that you can see in the next photo.
Behind the carriage you could see the gloriette. It was built in 18th century on the top of the hill in the Schönbrunn Palace Garden.
Standing on the balcony where the orchestra was playing you can see on the left the alley that the carriage came along and the gloriette on the right.
It is worth to climb the hill where the gloriette is located. The view from the top is gorgeous. You can see from there the southern facade of the palace with a city skyline in background.
In the evening James Bond and Kara Milovy attended the opera performance. That sequence was filmed in Schlosstheater in Schönbrunn Palace with nearly 250 extras. It is worth to mention that Michael G. Wilson and his wife were sitting in the audience. As he confessed it was the charm of this place that convinced them to be part of the scene.
The same location was used for the concert sequence with Kara playing solo at the end of the film. The role of the conductor was played by composer John Barry, who composed soundtracks for 12 James Bond films. Unfortunately the Schlosstheater was closed for the public during my visit to Vienna.
The northern facade of the palace was the background for the end credits.
Go to LOCATIONS GALLERY – ‘THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS’ to see photos of locations compared with movie scenes.
Information source:
– The Living Daylights Audio Commentary, The Living Daylights Special Edition, Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation, 2006.
10 Saturday Oct 2020
Posted in The Living Daylights, The Living Daylights
Tags
Austria, film travel, James Bond, James Bond filming location, James Bond location, james Bond locations, James Bond movie locations, James Bond travel, Prater, Schönbrunn Palace, travel, Vienna, Wiener Riesenrad
Real filming locations together with screens of scenes filmed in these places. Film scene on top and my location photo at the bottom.
– Währinger Strasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Volksoper at Währinger Strasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Währinger Strasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Volksoper at Währinger Strasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Traungasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Traungasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Doktor-Ignaz-Seipel-Platz in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Antonigasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Antonigasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– James Bond leaving Kara’s house. It was filmed at Antonigasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– Kara with the cello leaving her house. The house was filmed at Antonigasse 92 in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– James Bond and Kara in Aston Martin drive past a telephone booth where the cello case pretending to be Kara was left. It was filmed at Antonigasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– James Bond and Kara driving away in Aston Martin. It was filmed at Schlagergasse in Vienna, Austria. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: Vienna as Bratislava in ‘The Living Daylights’.
– James Bond (Timothy Dalton) and Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo) arrive to Vienna in Austria. There is the Wiener Riesenrad in background. (location photo: 2020)
– James Bond (Timothy Dalton) and Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo) in a carriage at Maria-Theresien-Platz in Vienna in Austria. (location photo: 2020)
– Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria, in which direction James Bond (Timothy Dalton) and Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo) are heading in a carriage. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: ‘The Living Daylights’ at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.
– End credits with Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria in background. (location photo: 2020) Read the story behind the scene: ‘The Living Daylights’ at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna.
10 Saturday Oct 2020
Tags
Italy, James Bond, James Bond filming location, james Bond locations, James Bond movie locations, James Bond travel, Moonraker, Venice
Real filming locations together with screens of scenes filmed in these places. Film scene on top and my location photo at the bottom.
10 Sunday May 2020
Posted in Jany Temime, Skyfall, Spectre
Jany Temime is awards winning costume designer. She has designed costumes for such blockbusters as 6 films about Harry Potter, ‘Gravity’, ‘Skyfall’, ‘Spectre’ and many other.
Piotr Zając (bondlocations): At the beginning I would like to ask about ‘Spectre’ opening sequence. There were so many people involved. What are your memories from working on that sequence?
Jany Temime: There were wonderful people in Mexico. We’ve opened a very big workshop there. Lots of talented people, great artists were making the masks. They were students from the academie, full of energy, creativity. Nothing was stopping them. They loved doing it. Working with those Mexican people was wonderful experience.
There were so many costumes. Did you have to create them all?
I’ve actually spent a week there. I’ve divided costumes into four themes: death, historical, wedding and folklor. After dividing them into four groups I actually had to make around 40 designs; 10 for each theme. Out of these 10 costumes there were different shapes and colors in different combinations. Actually it was more like arithmetics. I had time to organize it in such a way that we had different patterns that were made from different fabrics. My Mexican assistant went to London to buy the fabric, because fabrics were better in London than in Mexico.
007 films are famous for James Bond suits. In ‘Skyfall’ and ‘Spectre’ Tom Ford was the supplier. How did you work with him?
It was very good collaboration. Tom is film director and he understands exactly the job of costume designer. He was never trying to do more than he was supposed to do, which was making Daniel’s suit. He got me incredible tailors to work with and he completely respected my input. He gave me complete artistic freedom. I told him what I wanted to do and although it was not his style he completely respected it and he did it. We really worked very well together. I keep on seeing them and work with them on another project. They are wonderful.
So you’ve designed the suit and they’ve produced it according to your project?
Yes. I told Tom that I wanted to have dark blue tuxedo. Then I identified shape of jacket and trousers. He just sent me his tailors and they did exactly what I wanted.
How did you do, that Bond’s Walter PPK was not visible under his suit?
It was done by giving a little bit more of fabric where the gun should be. It was just clever tailoring.
How about action scenes? The suit fits very well all the time.
It was so, because suits were made very well and every suit was made for different action. Suits for motorbike had longer arms, longer legs and they had bigger seat. We didn’t make one suit. We made different shapes depending on a stunt. We also made different suits depending on the stuntman, because lots of them didn’t have Daniel’s size. They had to be made specially. Whoever was wearing the suit it was made for him.
It is visible that in ‘Skyfall’ the colors are very important.
It was first approach of Sam Mendes. He had in mind very classical film noir. It was also what I wanted. I remember Jean-Pierre Melville’s film from 1970 (‘Le cercle rouge’). Do you remember Alain Delon? That is how James Bond should look like. I knew that Daniel Craig wanted Steve McQueen, so I always kept Steve McQueen in my head, but in my mind I was thinking of Alain Delon. I wanted a sort of bad boy, but beautiful, sexy bad boy and we got that. I must say that big part of the aesthetics was coming from the director. It always comes from the director. I like a lot this sort of aesthetics, so I thought I could bring a lot in the film. Sam Mendes had it already in his mind from the beginning.
Did you also had in mind how colors were important, especially in ‘Skyfall’, while designing costumes?
I’ve designed costumes for the colors of scenes. It was intentional because ‘Skyfall’, even the name, was a sad film. ‘Spectre’ was different. It opened in Mexico in colors, so it was very difficult after that to catch it back. ‘Skyfall’ was first introspection of James Bond. It was reflective film, very different from ‘Spectre’. Colors in ‘Skyfall’ match completely with the sort of film that Sam Mendes wanted to make.
In James Bond films there are not only suits for 007, but also beautifull dresses. I’ve read that creating the dress for Severine, played by Berenice Marlohe in ‘Spectre’, took 6 months.
Yes, but it was not so much that we were designing it for half a year, but it took so long to have it made. Berenice Marlohe was training and her body was changing slightly, but enough for such a dress. I think that she was becoming more and more Bond girl, Severine, therefore it had to be adapted. It is very difficult when a girl who is sort of new actress has to become Bond girl. You can not just put a dress on her, you have to let it grow on her and that is why it took such a long time. I’ve also designed sort of tatoo on the back that Swarovski made with the technique of ironing it on tulle. It was time consuming because it was new process. It was very complicated dress. It took time to make it perfect. And then to produce it, because we needed to make 10 of them.
What about costumes for all other characters. Did you design all of them?
Yes. Sometimes it goes very quickly and you have it straight away. Sometimes it takes time. I remember in ‘Skyfall’ costume for Javier Bardem was very time consuming. We really didn’t know which way to go and neither did he. He wanted to be different sort of villain. He had in his mind that slightly homosexual scene therefore he wanted to be desirable. He thought that the scene would just work if he would be as sexy as Daniel Craig. I completely understood that. I thought that it was very strong point. We had to accept complexity of what was happening between those two men. It was very interesting. We could have gone different ways. I had in my mind even something Japanese at certain moment and then we went for sort of Nouveau riche, not really, but ostentatious. It was completely different image than Bond. Slightly Latino, slightly ostentatious. The guy anyway doesn’t get it. There was something completely wrong about him. It was hard to find a balance with his face and makeup and visual effects and to give him a costume which was as strong as that. It was difficult and it took a long time. I thought it was my most difficult costume.
How do you start the process of designing costumes?
At first I discuss with director. When I know what the director wants I start sketching. When I have different sketches I show them to the director. He gives me first ideas what appeals to him. Then I have time with actors. After that we have selection, fitting, looking alike and little by little we get to the costume. It is like a circle. You go round and round and round and finally you reach the middle.
Where did you look for inspirations for Bond suits?
Everywhere. For ‘Skyfall’ French director Jean-Pierre Melville and Sam Mendes inspired me. For ‘Spectre’ I thought about 1930’s, romanticism, Humphrey Bogart. I wanted white tuxedo. Then I started thinking about Sean Connery. I always look at Sean Connery. What would Sean wear? I wanted ‘Spectre’ to be completely different. I was thinking about Bogart, the train, the Tangier. That is why I put Lea (Seydoux) in 1930 dress. The light was also very different with Hoyte (van Hoytema), more romantic. He also explored different filters.
What is the experience from film set that you have still in your mind?
When Sam Mendes saw the dress he said: ‘I am going to start filming with her back to the camera’. He understood how he could use that. It was wonderful to work with director who new how to use what I gave him. ‘Skyfall’ was incredible cinematographic experience for me. Everybody has different feeling for each film. I thought that ‘Spectre’ was wonderful film to design and to make, but for me ‘Skyfall’ was cinematographic experience that really touched me.
What is your favourite scene from James Bond film so far?
The death of M in ‘Skyfall’.
Do you have any plans to work again on Bond film?
No, I am finished with Bond. I did two Bond films that were wonderful and took two years of my life. Now I am ready for new challange.
May 4th 2020
JAMES BOND 