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103 minutes of Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie promised eye candy for everyone, but The Tourist (GK Films / Columbia Pictures, 2010) is worth a see as much for its handsome views of Venice as much as for its handsome actors.

The movie set design includes a dramatic Venetian hotel lobby, a breath-taking hotel suite on the grand canal and an elegant ballroom scene, making up for any disappointment with the movie.

"Venice is a place with incredible beauty and glamour, but also a very dark side, “ says screenwriter and director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, The Lives of Others). “ I thought it’d be fun to combine those 2 sides in a film that would be full of surprises, just like Venice is full of surprises.”

A remake of 2005 French thriller, The Tourist revolves around Frank (Johnny Depp), an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart. Elise (Jolie) is an extraordinary woman who deliberately crosses his path on a train from Paris to Venice. Having chosen him as a decoy to her true lover, he becomes the target of both the police and the mobster whose money her lover stole. 

Jolie was drawn to the movie for its old Hollywood style. “When Florian spoke about the importance of something luxurious in cinema and something fun and exciting for people to watch, like those old classic movies, it seemed like a perfect match.” (Trivia! The role of Elise was originally planned for Charlize Theron).

“The movie reminded me of that Hitchcockian kind of elegance,” Rufus Sewell (the ‘Englishman’) agreed, recalling  old Hollywood sophistication and elegance where everyone looks great.

Filming was originally to be just 3 weeks in Venice and the rest on stage sets in England. “But he more I looked at the locations in Venice,” said Lloyd Phillips, Executive Direction, “it became very obvious…  Why build sets? It’s all right here.”

Jon Hutman, Production Designer, was intent on revealing the beauty of Venice through the film. “The whole city is essentially built of brick, which has to do with weight, so there’s this Venetian red terracotta color quality that’s everywhere. Then you have the contrasting greeny-blue of the water and blue of the sky… this it the palette of the film.”

Arriving in Venice, Jolie and Depp head to the Hotel Danieli; a real-life hotel on Saint Mark’s Square that blends three Venetian palazzos from the 14^th, 19^th and 20^th centuries. But only the hotel’s spectacular lobby was featured in the movie… complete with its handmade Murano glass, chandeliers, precious rugs, hand-carved marble columns, many original antique pieces and rich, Renaissance-inspired paint color combinations.  

“We wanted to be right on the grand canal, which is the heart of Venice," says Hutman. "So we scouted a bunch of Palazzi and we chose the Palazzo Pisani Moretta. We used it as the exterior of the Danielli Hotel and the interior of the Doche suite where the characters stay.” Rich red “Hotel Danieli” awnings were added to the exterior of the Pisani Moretta's grand canal entrance, and one of its luxurious interior suites was carefully renovated for the hotel room scenes (resulting in very elegant bedroom design pictures and a masterful living room furniture arrangement with rich red sofas).

“The hotel suite that we first walk into is the most amazing room,” says Jolie. “I spent the first 3 days of shooting thinking ‘this is the most amazing room’ and ‘how did they find this hotel?’. I’d been living in this room that they’ve designed and I couldn’t tell what was added on and what was adjusted.”

The formal ballroom scene toward the end of the movie required an equally classic and elegant formality. The 500-year old Scuola Grande Della de Misericordia was chosen for its raw, classic simplicity, but renovated to create the candlelit elegance of the evening gala affair. The Scuola was apparently never quite finished and until recently used as a basketball court! A balcony was added to fit the script.

But the glamorous costumes in The Tourist play as much of a role as the interior design, blending 20^th century Hollywood glamour with Venice-style extravagance.

“What glamour is, has changed with time,” acknowledges Coleen Atwood, Costume Designer. “So with this movie we took a very old place and use it as a background for more contemporary designs. It’s a blend of old world and new world together, which creates an elegant palette. For the costumes, I simplified the lines and did a more classic take on fashion as opposed to the latest trends and brightest colors.”

Atwood wanted to create something separate from Angelina… another character that she could own. ”We wanted to present a woman as a lady, but also as a lady who could be feminine and powerful at the same time.  I used a lot of light colors for her, because the Venice backgrounds can be quite moody. Instead of putting her in continually in a dark palette, I wanted to lighten her character up a little. There’s sort of a richness of all those ivories and rich colors against each other."

But one of Jolie's most dramatic costumes in the movie is indeed black. Her Edwardian ballroom gown with bustle, long gloves and up-do is pure elegance; a look that undeniably channels Italian Sophia Loren.

But as a whole, it's Depp’s color palette that's more classic, Atwood explains. “The gray suit, white shirt, dark tie that goes through time and holds up well over time. Like Hitchcock's North by Northwest, you can’t beat that look.”