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Hollywood and Monaco: at first glance, this appears to be a match made in heaven. There are probably no two places on earth that share the same combination of glamour and money – or the same type of cheerful, unapologetic vulgarity.

"Start your Monaco Movie Walk for Location Discovery here"

Upon further review, however, you will realize how rarely this seemingly perfect match has been, well, consummated. In fact, a surprisingly small number of Hollywood films, given the circumstances, have been actually shot on site in Monaco.

Take James Bond, for example: what could be a more “James-Bond-ish kinda town” than Monaco? And yet, it took Her Majesty’s Secret Agent about a dozen outings before he even got there.

And then, Sean Connery in Never Say Never Again does not get much further than to the Casino …

"where you start your Monaco Movie Walk for Location Discovery"

… which was also visited, 12 years later, by Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye

"scene of Goldeneye - Monaco Movie Walk for Location Discovery here"

… so you have not one but two reasons to start your Monaco movie walk for location discovery in front of Monte Carlo’s most famous landmark.

Your Guide to a Monaco Movie Walk for Location Discovery!

Pierce Brosnan’s Bond actually gets around a bit more than his predecessor: we also see him parking his Aston Martin at the Old Port, which you can reach by walking down the Avenue d’Ostende, and briefly at the amphitheatre of Fort Antoine.

"Pierce Brosnan as Bond in Goldeneye"

Why is it that so few films have been shot in Monaco? Permits certainly pose a problem. It is no coincidence that the two Bond movies appear to have been shot in the same, most remote section of the casino: a section that can be blocked off without having to close down business.

Both films also appear to have been shot very late at night, when famous movie actors are less likely to cause a commotion in the streets.

The procurement of permits is an even bigger problem for movies about the runner-up in the list of Things That Made Monaco Famous, which is motor racing.

In the old days, this problem was generally solved by sending second unit crews to the race with a brief to produce footage for later use in back projections. That’s what Hollywood did for Monte Carlo Or Bust (aka Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies).

The 1966 movie Grand Prix skilfully mixes generic footage with dramatic scenes that involved (and clearly showed) the actual actors, helped by James Garner’s driving which was good enough for him to perform some of his own stunts.

"James Garner in the movie Grand Prix"

Nowadays, computer graphics have taken over. The Historic Grand Prix of Monaco action sequence in Iron Man 2, for example, was produced in the parking lot of Downey Studios, California. The filmmakers shipped one Rolls-Royce Phantom to Monaco and filmed a track sequence into which racecars were later digitally added.

You can do something similar for yourself, using the most sophisticated hardware known to man – your brain – to add any type and number of motor racing action to the actual scenery when walking down the route of the Grand Prix, changed little since the 1950s.

"the Grand Prix route - Monaco Movie Walk for Location Discovery here"

Permits or not: it is certainly an oddity that the most famous Riviera film of all, Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch A Thief, features only such a brief appearance of Monaco.

Cary Grant walks in front of the harbour, on his way to a restaurant …

"Cary Grant in Monaco - Monaco Movie Walk for Location Discovery"

… and that is pretty much the only time Hitch is taking us into the streets of the Riviera’s most famous town.

The briefness of Monaco’s appearance is all the more ironic with hindsight, since it was to assume such a large role in its leading actress’s (Grace Kelly) later life.

We do get to see Monaco once more, however, if only from above, in the famous picnic scene.

"Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief"

Hitch may have cheated a little with his back projections here, using views of the town that were shot from different angles and locations.

But the bulk of this scene was clearly shot from one of the serpentine curves of the Avenue des Combattants en Afrique du Nord, a side street of the Moyenne Corniche in Beausoleil, a 30-minute walk away from Monaco’s border with France.

To see Monaco at its best, get hold of a copy of The Red Shoes (shot in 1948), possibly the world’s most famous ballet movie: the Monaco scenes show you what has been lost over the past 70 years and how sweetly charming the town once was.

Even the casino – although it has itself not changed, of course – looks barely recognizable.

"Monaco casino in its early days"

The most famous recent Monaco movie is Grace of Monaco: famous mainly for all the wrong reasons, one might say, such as a controversy-surrounded premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, poor reviews and the cancellation of its cinematic release in the US.

Plus, long before that, the fact that the House of Grimaldi, Monaco’s ruling family, had largely disowned the film, their pleas for historic accuracy – and offers of help – having been studiously ignored.

In the end, the production crew was given one full day to shoot a showpiece scene in front of the Casino, but most other locations had to be moved out of town: Derek Jacobi’s Count D’Ailieres resides in the Villa Hanbury near Ventimiglia, …

"Villa Hanbury"

… the Palazzo Reale in Genoa’s Via Balbi stands in for the Monaco Palace, and the Ligurian village of Grimaldi provides the backdrop for several dramatic plot developments.

Co-Starring Menton…..

And the scene where Princess Grace, with nods to Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday and Harun al-Rashid, enters the fray of the busy Monaco street market, …

"Nicole Kidman in movie about Grace Kelly - Monaco Movie Walk for Location Discovery""

… under the benevolent gaze of Frank Langella as her priestly mentor …

… was actually shot in front of the St Michael’s Church in Menton.

"Parvis de St Michel Menton"

This was not the first time that Menton was used as an uncredited stand-in for a picturesque, Italianate Riviera town.

The episode The Mystery of the Blue Train from the TV series Poirot, for example, uses Rue de Brea (in Menton’s Old Town) as the backdrop for a heated conversation..

"Rue de Brea - Monaco Movie Walk for Location Discovery"

…. while the Palais Carnolese stands in for Nice train station.

It is the outskirts of Menton that feature in The Day of the Jackal: we see Edward Fox’s hitman on his drive from Italy to Paris along the Avenue Sylvio de Monleon on the Cap Saint Martin peninsula and crossing the border at the Pont St Louis.

Both locations are a long way out of Menton‘s town centre, but fortunately (for the purposes of our Movie Walk), Menton’s “15 Minutes Of Movie Fame“ were shot in the heart of the Old Town, just a few steps away from St Michael’s church and Rue de Brea.

Between its start at the cemetery gates above the Old Town and its climactic finale in the Tunnel Pascal Molinari, the bike chase of the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again manages to showcase quite a few of the Old Town’s sites: the stairway towards St Michael’s Church …

"Menton in movie Never Say Never Again"

… the long and narrow Rue Longue …

"Rue Longue Menton in movie Never Say Never Again"

… and Place du Cap where the Old Town meets the marina.

"Place du Cap Menton in movie Never Say Never Again"

 Have a happy journey on your Monaco Movie walk for location discovery!

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