Angels and Demons filming locations

VATICAN LIBRARY: BIBLIOTECA ANGELICA

The book-made Robert Langdon as well as his movie version impersonated by Tom Hanks have both succeeded in attaining a commitment to approval intrude into the interior of the Vatican Library, one of the Angels and Demons filming locations that has been initially out of permitted access for a filming crew that undertook a mission to ensoul Dan Brown’s book. As soon as June 17, 2008, on the threshold of the third-in-a-row weeks of the exterior shooting in Rome, the filmmakers finally attained the never-enough-to-be-regretted BIBLIOTECA ANGELICA, internationally praised for its collection of up to 200,000 manuscripts and books. Resorting to a cinematic trick, the filmmaking entourage of Ron Howard did take advantage of the exterior courtyard. It possessed a short scene within the real-world public library of Rome, on the other bank of the river Tiber near the Vatican. At the same time, the entrance to the secured section and the thrilling scenes with the loss of the electrification would be later filmed within a studio, the Angels and Demons filming location back in Los Angeles.

As soon as Robert Langdon, Dr. Vittoria Vetra, and Inspector Olivetti angle their way into a cozy square beyond the auto barrier, we need a little effort to take note of a soldier of the ‘Cohors pedestris Helvetiorum a sacra custodia Pontificis’ or simply ‘Swiss Guard’. This initial cinematic trick was intentionally attributed to the set to punctuate the fact of the approaching of the ‘holy of holies’ of the Vatican. Tom Hanks, Ayelet Zurer, and Pierfrancesco Favino made their way into Piazza di Sant Agostino, a cozy square, once named after the Renaissance church of the same name, which had been built back in the 15th century with the marble blocks of the Coliseum. An entrance to the Biblioteca Angelica could be found no further than a few meters next to the marble stairs of the temple. The magic of movie making leaves us with no more than a ‘VA’ letter within a stone plate hinting at the ‘VATICAN’, though the actual anaglyph proclaims: ‘BIBLIOTECA ANGELICA’, as well as its mirrored twin adds: ‘ARCADIA: ACCADEMIA LETTERARIA ITALIANA’, encrypting another institution within these walls since 1940. 

The interior scene takes us, along with Robert and Vittoria, to the intricately carved staircase and later a narrow reception premise, actually a working place of a library sectarian, to follow to a spacious reading hall. These few seconds of a movie indeed depicted the real reading hall of the Biblioteca Angelica public library, which would end with no more than bookshelves. The final editing has skillfully shifted the camera perspective to show us a modern-like entrance to the Vatican Library with the inevitable Swiss guard in the background. This very set dimension was made as a studio set far from Rome. 

ANGELS AND DEMONS FILMING LOCATIONS: THE PANTHEON

On June 9-10, 2008, the citizens of Rome, as well as thousands of tourists from almost every corner of the planet, had a chance to experience an exotic liveliness within PIAZZA DELLA ROTONDA square. The granted permission to a limited-in-time yet exclusive access to one of the most famous city landmarks allowed the filming crew, supervised by Ron Howard in person, to achieve two pre-planned goals. The early hours provided the means to erect a rail track for the cameras, as well as to enforce a barrier between the crew and tourists, a necessity to plan the best perspective of the scene. Dozens of the ‘directable’ movie extras were to crowd the square, forming a vision of the masses with no interest in Tom Hanks making his way to the Pantheon. The backstage commentaries of Ron Howard revealed the fact that the majority of the onlookers did not interfere with the filming process, yet the movie succeeded in masking the crowd as people beyond the police barrier (the means taken to reveal the imprisoned cardinal). 

While the actors were indeed present at the PIAZZA DELLA ROTONDA on the brink of the Pantheon, another master editing trick takes the viewer into the studio set, lavishly complemented with the CGI interior, recreating the historic sanctuary. The scenes inside the Pantheon demanded the erection of a separate indoor movie set with the cradle of Rafael 9 meters high as the only actual prop. The floor would later be digitally renovated, and the green-screen walls would be digitized to fit the actual Pantheon. In this cinematic respect, once Robert and Vittoria make the first steps into the Pantheon, the whole interior, except one wall, was made on a computer, based on photos and video of the actual Roman landmark. In cinema, the Pantheon became iconic in 1953 thanks to the ‘Roman Holiday‘. 

SANTA MARIA DEL POPOLO

Less than 24 hours before the day Piazza Del Popolo witnessed the blaze of the filming process with Ron Howard in supervision, a group of set designers had concealed the front side of the local police station with scaffolds. The locals were brought to notice that the movie called ‘Obelisk’ would be shot within the next few days. The cover-up of the movie title beyond the fictional euphemism is no less than a common practice that has been used for decades to reduce the public consideration of the shooting process. In the teeth of all trickery, any visitor of the square would have a chance to keep an eye on Dan Brown, the author of the original book, as well as director Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, and an assemblage of actors and filmmakers.

We have a strong argument to pay a little notice to the retrospective statements of the ecclesiastic officials on their rejection of the shooting inside the Santa Maria Del Popolo. The Angels and Demons filming crew had been initially scheduled to recreate the vast majority of the interior scenes back in a studio; the statement, made 13 days after the exterior shooting, was of no surprise to Ron Howard. The decorated police station is located just a few meters opposite the actual Santa Maria Del Popolo church, a historical landmark to be included in the scene for a mere few seconds with blurred camera sharpness. All the interior scenes, including the ‘Chigi Chapel’, would be later recreated in a studio, thus set in LA, and also used to depict the inside space of the Maria Della Vittoria.

SAINT PETER’S SQUARE IN ROME

The very fact that the filming crew would experience an expected ban on shooting within the Vatican had initially been of no doubt for anyone who pays even a slight interest in moviemaking, as well as the surface reporting on the news about the ‘Da Vinci Code’ disputes. A few people give credit to the fact that the Angels and Demons filmmakers found the public Saint Peter’s Square to be forbidden for their needs. The recognition of the fact that one of the most important locations would have to be recreated with alabaster movie props and CGI resulted in the approval of sophisticated, detailed data-finding in the history of the movie industry. A dedicated team was to spend weeks within Saint Peter’s Square, incorporated with the crowds of tourists to capture hundreds of hours of video footage as well as thousands of photos from the site. Every single piece of the accumulated material would be later used to piece together the legendary square with an unprecedented level of detail, in fact, enough not to give the majority of viewers clues to notice a substitution.

The initial phase of the works included the build-up of a giant scenery, one of the largest in movie history. The iconic site for millions of Christians was partially rebuilt within a spacious parking area next to the Hollywood Park Racetrack in Los Angeles. The collected data made it possible to recreate the famous colonnade, the statues, a few obelisks, and the front side of the Saint Peter’s Basilica, a setting for several scenes. In this respect, the thrilling scene with a search for the second cardinal left bleeding to death was shot within a studio open set in California, far from Rome. The very same location would be later refurbished to visualize the Piazza Navona Square. The absolute majority of the aerial perspective with crowds of people was steadily created with CGI animation, seamlessly incorporated into the movie. The specialists in visual effects completed extensive homework on creating categories of the computerized extras, from the ones standing motionless to those scratching their noses.

MARIA DELLA VITTORIA

As soon as June 21, 2008, the filming crew spent a few scheduled hours within Via Venti Settembre, a cozy street in the Eastern part of Rome, at a stone’s throw from the Termini railway station. The actual agenda was beyond any difficulties and included a few shots of Robert Langdon, who accompanies police officers to enter the Maria Della Vittoria Church. Similar to Santa Maria Del Popolo, the filming crew considered themselves satisfied with only the outdoor perspectives and the actors in front of the location. All interior shots of the semi-horror scene of the cremation of a cardinal were recreated within a studio set back in LA. For the reasons we can appreciate, the work next to the fire was possible only on a pavilion basis, under constant supervision. In addition to all the obvious advantages of using the studio set, the indoor space was, in fact, larger than the one inside the real-world Maria Della Vittoria, which allowed the use of the cameras at high elevations to gain unique camera angles, out of reach in an actual church. The same interior was also used to recreate Santa Maria Del Popolo.

PIAZZA NAVONA

Another iconic Roman landmark was indeed visited by the filmmakers back in June 2008. Many people notice that the depth of the ‘Fountain of the Four Rivers’ would make it impossible for Robert Langdon to dive into the waters to save the cardinal. However, a few know that the square was rebuilt within the very parking place previously used to piece together the Saint Peter’s square. After the demolition of the previous set (Saint Peter’s Square), it took six weeks to recreate the Piazza Navona Square with the replication of a fountain. As the professor takes the far-distance view, we could experience the indeed Piazza Navona with the next few steps and the editing trick, which takes us from Rome to the movie set in Los Angeles, a square replica in full size. The parts of the scenery were covered with the green screen for the upcoming CGI digitalization. The real Piazza Navona has long been ago favored by filmmakers and is also known to the Western audience thanks to ‘European Vacation‘. 

SANT ANGELO 

The defiant attitude of the clerical officials was not the only obstacle that influenced the filming process of Angels and Demons. The ‘visit’ of the filmmakers to the ‘Ponte Sant Angelo’ bridge was initially scheduled for June 12, yet the upcoming reception of George W. Bush (the President of the USA at that time) postponed the shooting until June 20. The behind-the-scenes materials included the above-average monologue of Tom Hanks, once taken into footage, only a few hundred meters from the SANT ANGELO castle. Several scenes were filmed inside the iconic historical landmark over the course of another three days.