Red Sparrow filming locations

RED SPARROW FILMING LOCATIONS IN BUDAPEST

Speaking about Red Sparrow filming locations, the origin of the Red Sparrow story came from the experience and imagination of Jason Matthews (1951-2021), a retired CIA agent, who turned his 33 years of service into a fiction novel about spies, double agents, and the legacy of the Cold War. Matthews decided to fill the gap of free time on retirement by writing a book, which was finally published in June 2013 under the Red Sparrow title. The CIA staff highly regarded the novel and praised it to a wide audience; it received prestigious literary awards and became a world bestseller. The book was so catchy that Matthews sold the rights for a movie adaptation even before the novel hit the bookshelves. The producers of Chernin Entertainment were thrilled that the story’s author was a former CIA agent himself, which added authenticity to the events and characters’ depiction. The other reason for investing money in the story was the key protagonist, a girl, who was drawn into a spy conspiracy by force of circumstances. The novel came into the hands of director Francis Lawrence, who was finishing the Hunger Games franchise and looking for something new. He was fascinated by the original story and suggested Jennifer Lawrence, with whom she worked on Hunger Games, as a leading star for Red Sparrow.

Months before the start of the principal filming, director Francis Lawrence and his crew traveled to Budapest, Hungary, to look for the locations that could be used to depict Helsinki, where most of the original story took place. When the filmmakers spent several days in the city, they decided to make Budapest a part of the script and one of the characters in the movie adaptation. With this new agenda, Red Sparrow locations were shaped by the city’s authenticity, often regarded as a meeting place between West and East. Production designer Maria Djurkovic was known for her work on other spy movies, ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ and ‘The Imitation Game’. While initially she had some concerns about the conventionally dull colors and design of the Cold War stories, Djurkovic easily found common ground with director Francis Lawrence regarding the production design, the color palette, and the elements of post-Soviet flair. They altered the common Soviet-era palette to create a unique atmosphere both during the indoor scenes and while shooting open-air in Hungary and Slovakia. Regarding Bratislava, the film crew later shot in locations where Maria Djurkovic had been years before the production of Red Sparrow. After the film premiered in 2018, the citizens of Budapest were mostly favorable to the depiction of the city in the movie.  

 

DOMINICA ON HER WAY TO THE OPERA HOUSE

It is interesting to note that the scene where the character of Jennifer Lawrence hurries into the opera house was shot first on the first day of shooting in Budapest on January 5, 2017. The temperature outdoors that day was slightly above zero (2 °C actually), which added authenticity to the scene supposed to be in moscow (the only instance when I use the name of the capital of the terrorist state in this article). This Red Sparrow Budapest location is better known as ‘Hosok ter’ or ‘Heroes’ Square’ in the heart of the city. The location was significantly edited in post-production by adding CGI buildings, expanding the existing ones, and altering the remaining. First, we see a brief glimpse of Műcsarnok Kunsthalle (Budapest Palace of Art), a large neoclassical building dated 1896. Its porch leading to the entrance was made in Greek Revival style. A moment later, Dominika is heading toward the supposed Opera building, actually Szépművészeti Múzeum, a Hungarian museum of Fine Arts, whose facade was digitally altered for the scene. 

The Heroes’ Square came into the life of Budapest at the end of the 19th century as a commemoration of the millennium anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian State. The new project involved the remodeling of one end of the famous Andrassy Avenue and building a metro line with a station under the planned square. The construction began in 1896, the year of the anniversary, and was mostly finished by 1900 when the square gained its current name. The Millenial Memorial, which did not appear in Red Sparrow, was finally opened in 1906. The Square saw important events in Hungarian history, first under the Habsburgs’ rule, then as an independent state, then under Communist rule, and once again as a free state. This location is only at the arm’s end of the famous Vajdahunyad Castle, which gave its exterior to ‘The Spy Who Dumped Me’, which premiered in the same 2018. 

 

DOMINICA AND HER LAST BALLET DANCE

After just around ten seconds of the outdoor scene with Dominika hurrying toward the Opera house, the next scene on the stage has both the time and impact on the main character’s fate. Dominika suffers a chilling leg fracture, which ends her ballet aspiration forever and pushes her into despair and a recently unexpected way of living as a spy. A need to support her ill and fading mother hustles the girl to accept an offer from her uncle. When it comes to the exact Red Sparrow filming location in Budapest, the opera sequence was filmed in the Hungarian State Opera on Andrassy Utca Avenue, approximately two kilometers from the previous location on Heroes’ Square. Given the tight schedule of performances, it was very difficult to provide filming opportunities. The actors and crew were still finishing up their work, and the stagehands were already starting to set up the scenery for the evening performance in the State Opera. A brief scene of a ballet dance demanded Jennifer Lawrence three months of training with a famous choreographer, Kurt Froman, who had previously worked with Natalie Portman on Black Swan. Three hours of dancing training daily and harsh workouts changed Lawrence’s appearance and body position, an experience that the actress later called impactful. 

It should come as no surprise that the architects of the Hungarian State Opera House in the center of Budapest derived inspiration from Vienna’s Staatsoper. The construction lasted almost a decade between 1875 and 1884 under the supervision of Miklós Ybl, the most recognized and influential Hungarian architect of the 19th century and the father of many landmarks in Budapest. The September 27, 1884, opening ceremony was attended by Emperor Franz Joseph I. Initially designed to welcome up to 2,4000 visitors, the Opera House was rebuilt several times, and the modernized space nowadays has 1,289 seats. Fortunately for the Hungarian people, the State Opera House survived the damage of the Battle of Budapest in the later stages of the Second World War, when the Red Army reduced complete city blocks to the ground. The main auditorium, a horseshoe shape where the Red Sparrow scene takes place, is the most elegant element of the building. According to one of the studies, it has the third-best acoustics among all European opera houses, giving way only to Palais Garnier in Paris and La Scala Opera in Milan. 

When it comes to State Opera’s fate as a filming location, a few scenes from Ron Howard’s Inferno were filmed on the streets, adjusting to the building, including the night scene when Professor Langdon was kidnapped and shoved into a car. The scene was filmed on Dalszínház Utca 10, just next to the Opera House, with a glimpse of the famous house of music on the left. 

 

MEETING A STRANGER AT THE ANDARJA HOTEL

It is curious to acknowledge that most of The Red Sparrow’s audience, especially males, kept the movie in mind thanks to several nude and sex scenes with Jeniffer Lawrence. The filmmakers, including the director Francis Lawrence, did not specifically set an objective to impress the viewer with such kind of content, but they tended to follow the mature and grim tone of the original novel. Initially, Dominika’s assignment to seduce a corrupted politician sounded humiliating, but not extraordinary or dangerous. Let’s face it: switching the mobile phone is not the same as becoming a witness to the murder of a man who has just raped you. While the hotel room of a fictional Hotel Andarja was a movie set, the foregoing scene in the bar was shot inside one of the most luxurious and famous restaurants in Budapest, known as New York Cafe, inside a hotel of the same name on Erzsébet körút 9 in the city center. 

The magnificent Hotel building was built in 1894 as the main European office of New York Life Insurance Company, whose bosses specifically regarded the new headquarters as an architectural monument. The Americans hired a famous Hungarian architect, Alajos Hauszmann, who would later create the landmark, Buda Castle. While the façade impresses with its grandeur, with exquisite stonework and decorative sculptures, the interior is luxurious, with exquisite design and majestic chandeliers. The New York Café welcomed its first guests on October 23, 1894, attracting attendees with its design and atmosphere of the grandeur of the Habsburg era. The New York Café became a meeting place for artists, politicians, and journalists, and the coffee house played an important role in the daily life of the city. Lively conversations were always held here, which took place while reading newspapers, drinking coffee, and enjoying exquisite desserts. After the Second World War, the hotel building was nationalized, and the upcoming decades were years of decline. After the anticipated fall of the communist regime in Hungary, the New York Hotel was sold to private investors several times until it was finally restored and reopened in 2006. 

 

MEETING AN UNCLE IN THE CAFE

In the 48 minutes, Dominika has another meeting with her uncle, played by the excellent Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts. He speaks about the sacrifices and gives Dominika a new passport and identity, though the niece prefers to leave the place without tasting the menu. The scene was filmed inside another remarkable cafe in Budapest known as Alexandra Book Cafe in the Paris Department Store on Andrassy Utca 39. 

Originally built as a casino at the end of the 19th century, in 1911, the magnificent building in Art Nouveau style was turned into a so-called ‘Párizsi Nagy Áruház’ or ‘Paris Department Store’, the most modern department store in Budapest at the time with glass-mirrored elevators, electricity, and heating. The building survived WWII undamaged but was later nationalized and renamed during the communist era. After the fall of the regime, the department store changed hands several times until it was finally bought by a French company, renovated, and opened in 2010. The Alexandra bookstore occupies two floors, and the space where the Red Sparrow scene was filmed was known as Lotz Hall (named after the fresco author Karoly Lotz), a breathtakingly ornate Neo-Renaissance ballroom converted into a restaurant. It was closed in 2017, and during the renovation period, the hall was used in two movies: Red Sparrow and The Spy Who Dumped Me. The restaurant was reopened in 2019 under the name Cafe Parisi, but later the whole building was again closed and offered for sale. When I visited Budapest in September 2021 and took the photos, the site still looked abandoned. 

 

THE HUNGARIAN HEADQUARTERS

As I have stated in the opening section devoted to the Red Sparrow filming locations decisions, the filming crew and director Francis Lawrence were fascinated with Budapest, and they altered the script and included the city in the story. After seeing her uncle, Dominika finally travels to Budapest, even though most of the previous locations were filmed there. The reality is even trickier since one of the first locations upon arrival was shot in Bratislava, Slovakia. Years before Red Sparrow filming, Production Designer Maria Djurkovic was fascinated with ‘Budova Slovenského Rozhlasu’ or ‘Slovak Radio Building’, one of Bratislava’s city landmarks. The construction of the building of the upside-down pyramid took sixteen years between 1967 and 1983, and another two years before regular broadcasting began. The imposing building is composed of two pyramids, one inside the bigger one, with the little one accommodating sound studios. The Slovak Radio Building is 80 meters high and has a concert hall for 523 guests with excellent acoustics and one of the largest organs in Europe with 6,300 pipes. It is interesting to note that in 2018, when Red Sparrow premiered, the Guardian included the Slovak Radio Building in a list of 41 ugliest buildings in the world. 

 

MEETING NASH AT THE US EMBASSY

After two visits to the local intelligence headquarters inside the Slovak Radio Building (meant to be a Budapest HQ) and a brief acquaintance with Nate Nash (Joel Edgerton) near the swimming pool, the two meet again at the US Embassy in Budapest. We even see the ‘Roosevelt Conference Room’ sign behind one of Dominika’s female supervisors. It should be obvious that the sequence was not filmed inside the real Embassy on Liberty Square but at the Semmelweis University, more precisely in the building known as ‘Nagyvárad téri Elméleti Tömb’ or ‘Nagyvárad Square Theoretical Block’ at Nagyvárad tér 4 in the south part of Budapest. The tallest building in the city during the communist era, it was completed in 1978 and had 22 stories. What impresses the audience in Red Sparrow is the giant stained glass, seven meters high and twenty-one meters long, that was created based on the works of a famous artist and painter, Gyula Hincz (1904–1986). The building witnessed a reconstruction in the early 2000s, but mainly preserved its original architectural ideas and the atmosphere of the socialist style of the 20th century. 

 

DOMINIKA MEETS VOLONTOV AT THE STRIPTEASE BAR

In this short scene, Dominika (Jennifer Lawrence) meets the local station chief, Maxim Volontov, this time outside his office (Slovak Radio Building) but in Budapest’s striptease bar. She provokes the man to make him send a favorable report on her progress, or he will lose his position. The scene was filmed inside the real striptease bar called ‘HalloBar’ at Király Utca 65 in the heart of the city. The location known in Budapest since the 1970s is claimed to be the most visited place of this kind in the city. If you are attentive, you can even see the ‘HalloBar’ sign in the background of the scene when Dominika makes her way to Volontov. 

 

NASH WAITS ALONE AT THE RESTAURANT 

Following the scene in the striptease bar, Dominika ignores her appointment with Nash and leaves him alone at the luxurious restaurant just to follow the man to his apartment. The place is Callas Cafe near the Opera House, the site of one of the first Red Sparrow scenes with Dominika’s faithful injury. The movie does not hide the location, and when Joel Edgerton’s character leaves the restaurant, we see ‘Callas’ name on the glass door. The building in which the restaurant is located was finished in 1881, one year before the Opera House next to it was opened. The cafe on the ground floor changed names several times before the 1920s, when it lost its original purpose, and Callas Cafe in Art Deco style moved here only in 2006. Today, the building is listed as a historical landmark together with the Opera House. 

 

DOMINICA AT THE VIENNA BANK

1 hour and 15 minutes into the story, we see Dominika secretly traveling to Vienna and opening a bank account in ‘Bank Graf Vienna’. The scene takes place on Michaelerplatz, one of the most well-known squares in Vienna, adjusting to the famous Hofburg Palace in the first district. There is no ‘Bank Graf’ bank here, particularly at Michaelerplatz 2, the real address. What was here at the time of the filming in 2017 was the well-known Café Griensteidl, a legendary Viennese cafe. It opened its doors back in 1847 and operated for half a century until, in 1898, it was succeeded by another cafe called Glattauer, a popular meeting point for artists, politicians, and writers in the early XX century. In 1990, Café Griensteidl came back to the site but was closed in 2017 and served as a filming location for Red Sparrow. 

Michaelerplatz Square is a well-recognized place in Vienna, and apart from Jeniffer Lawrence’s appearance, it could be seen in Ron Howard’s ‘Rush’ with another, this time a real bank (Raiffeisenlandesbank), and also in 2018 in ‘The Spy Who Dumped Me’ with Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon. 

 

DOMINIKA AND A LIE DETECTOR: HOTEL GELLÉRT

Last but not least, the Red Sparrow Budapest location I want to share deals with the scene when the CIA tests Dominika on a lie detector. The filmmakers make no bones about the actual location as we see the Hotel Gellert front side with the famous letters on it. The famous Art Nouveau Hotel is located on the bank of the Danube. The construction started in 1911 but was delayed due to the outbreak of the First World War and opened its doors as late as 26 September 1918. The initial 176 rooms were expanded with another 60 in the 1920s, and a thermal bath was added in 1934. The building suffered badly from Soviet attacks in 1945 but was restored and reopened in March 1946 under state operation. In the next decades, Hotel Gellert witnessed several renovations, and some parts were completely reconstructed. After the fall of the communist murderous regime, the hotel was privatized in the 1990s and became one of the most recognized in Budapest.