On Location: Venice Takes On a Sinister Air in ‘A Haunting in Venice’

15.09.2023 - 21:37 / cntraveler.com / Agatha Christie

While many films have been set in Venice, Kenneth Branagh’s latest murder mystery reveals a less glimpsed—and more ghostly—side of the city. A Haunting in Venice, based on Hallowe'en Party by Agatha Christie, finds Hercule Poirot, played by Branagh himself, in retirement in the Italian city in 1947. However, given the Belgian detective's knack for getting ensnared in a mystery, he is soon enticed into attending a séance in a grand palazzo on Halloween night, where a murder reveals possible supernatural occurrences. Once inside the house, Poirot is haunted by unseen spirits in his search for the truth.

To create a period version of Venice, Branagh tapped production designer John Paul Kelly, who had limited experience visiting the Italian city prior to shooting there.

“It’s jaw-droppingly extraordinary,” Kelly says. “To arrive at the airport, get in a water taxi and get zoomed across this lagoon into the Grand Canal is the most extraordinary thing in the world. It’s a city that defies logic because it’s just floating. The sheer age and beauty of the buildings is amazing. And it’s a lovely place to film.”

While A Haunting in Venice is set entirely in Venice, most of the film was actually shot in the studio in London. They spent a week on location during a particularly cold January and captured areas of Venice that may be less familiar to tourists. Here, Kelly explains the movie magic behind the film, as well as his recommendations for visitors to Venice.

Riccardo Scamarcio as Vitale Portfoglio and Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot in A Haunting in Venice.

What was the biggest challenge with setting the film in Venice?

I visited Venice very early on with Kenneth Branagh to work out what the setting should be and what the feeling should be. But also to look at the practicalities of whether we could film in Venice, how much we could film in Venice, and whether we wanted to build some or all of the palazzo. We looked at a lot of beautiful buildings. We realized that we probably wanted to set it in the backwaters of the of the canals that have a tucked-away, secret feel. But we couldn’t find a palazzo with interiors we liked, or that was right for our story—with a secret garden on the roof and things like that. So we came back to London and decided we would build our own palazzo at Pinewood Studios.

How did you capture the period version of Venice that we see in the film?

The film is set in Venice immediately after World War II—it was a pretty different place. Venice had been spared from the bombing, which seems extraordinary. But as a result it was very much a home for refugees. We wanted to show a Venice with bread lines and markets and windy streets. It wasn’t about the Venice that’s usually depicted