5 films with filming locations in Portugal
Portugal is becoming an increasingly attractive destination for film productions with a wide variety of locations of all kinds. But so far there haven’t been many major movies that include locations in Portugal, so we’ve searched the archives for a few that you might remember.
If 007 visits, you can be sure that you will be remembered. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) is a film that puts Portugal on the map, although with George Lazenby as 007 it was perhaps one of the least popular old Bond films. The film begins on Guincho beach, near Cascais, west of Lisbon, with Bond rescuing Tracy di Vicenzo, the gangster’s daughter, from the sea. We see many more scenes from Portugal, including the spectacular 25 de Abril suspension bridge in Lisbon and the glamorous Palacio Estoril Hotel where Bond is staying. Much of the rest of the drama moves to Switzerland, but these scenic landscapes of Portugal remain memorable today.
Bond’s most enduring face, Sean Connery, visits Lisbon in another role and in another time. The Russia House (1990) is a spy thriller based on a novel by Le Carre and the film stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Sean Connery. While most of the film is set in Russia (and shot on location, a first for western films at the end of the Cold War era) Barley, Sean Connery’s drinking editor persona has a home in Lisbon where he takes refuge in the middle and at the end of the film, while waiting for the girl to join him after his escape from Russia.
The House of Spirits (1993) has an all-star cast with Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas and Vanessa Redgrave in a supporting role. The film is set in Chile, based on the novel by Isabel Allende, but was filmed on location in Portugal and on a set in Denmark. The rural Alentejo region of southern Portugal with its hills, mountains, and hot, dry summers is doubled for Chile, and Lisbon provides part of the city’s backdrop for the drama.
Roman Polanski’s contemporary thriller The Ninth Gate (1999) stars Johnny Depp as a rare book dealer in search of a supernatural demon text. In the course of his European travels through France and Spain, to locate the authentic copy of the book for his client, he visits Sintra in Portugal. It is a picturesque area of Portugal on the outskirts of Lisbon with many palaces and castles on the hills. Depp visits Chalet Biester with its turreted silhouette hidden in a lush green forest that oozes mystery.
The Lisbon Story (1994) was never a huge box office success, but being produced by Wim Wenders has a certain appeal for moviegoers. Set in and around Lisbon, the city originally commissioned it as a promotional documentary until Wim Wenders added a plot line and some fictional characters to turn it into a full-length film. Of all these films, it is the one that probably shows the most representative views of Lisbon itself, although the others are much more glamorous!
Keep looking for modern films with locations in Portugal, as it is sure to appear more and more in the lists of desirable destinations of film production companies.
