The English Patient (Dir: Anthony Minghella, 1996)

Pienza, Tuscany, Italy

I have included ‘The English Patient’ because not only does it use expansively beautiful and truly eloquent locations, it would have been a particularly tricky film to chose locations for because the book (by Michael Ondaatje) is so descriptive and photo realistic. I felt nervous about seeing the film because I had such a firm idea of what the villa, especially, but other locations as well, would look like. Though set in Italy and Egypt, Tunisia is shot for Egypt. De Almay’s (Ralph Fiennes) archaeological dig is near Onk Jemal, which I haven’t visited, but apparently you can go there on a four wheel drive tour.

For me, the most important locations, the villa and nearby village were filmed in Tuscany (so adaptation purists will be happy.) in and around the town of Pienza, which is a quiet, rural and picturesque place to visit, the largest nearby town is Siena. I can’t give a precise address for the villa, we got directions from one of the local cafes, but it’s about 15mins out of town. Some of the interior scenes were filmed at a studio and we couldn't go inside the villa so I'm not sure which ones, possibly the majority.

The church Kip takes Hana to is the Church of San Francesco in Arezzo. The chapel with it’s painted roof had just been restored when I visited, but it originally dates from the 13th Century. These places aren’t at the top of the Tuscan tourists list, so you can expect, what I would call, a more authentic experience with less souvenir stands and people standing in front of things taking photos.

Written by  Film Fan.

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