LOCATION matters. Watch, for instance, any of the Bourne films. Would they have been anything more than just run-of-the-mill chase flicks without the serious attention to detail when it came to setting?
Watching Matt Damon soar over rooftops in Tangier or dodge the CIA in London’s Waterloo wouldn’t have been half as exciting if it didn’t look and feel so real. Getting off the lot and leaving the fakery behind in Burbank where it belongs pays off, and pays off big.
Today, the phenomenon of “set-jetting” – visiting film-shoot sites – is bigger than ever with more and more travelers looking to DVDs rather than brochures to plan their next escape from reality. Last year’s crop of films – some Academy Award nominees among them – are helping to fuel the growing trend.
Here, our favorite locations from a year of destination-driven cinema.
INDIA
The flick: “Darjeeling Limited”
On location: Criminally elimimated from the Oscar running – on looks alone it should win – this quirky buddy flick is a traveler’s dream.
Director Wes Anderson recreated his own train, loosely based on the real Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway “Toy Train.”
He shot the entire flick in Jodhpur, rather than Darjeeling, in sites he fell in love with while watching Satyajit Ray’s classic films shot in the same locations.
Recreate your own sensual and spiritual Indian journey with a trip on either the very luxurious Palace on Wheels or the original Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.
The Palace is ultra-luxe (and ultra-expensive) and travels through very now, very colorful Rajasthan, stopping along the way for side trips to palaces and other scenic sites (palaceonwheels.net).
The Darjeeling Himalayan has two- to six-hour journeys thorough India’s famed tea country, all of them in original 1890s railway cars that have recently been restored. The train is also designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site (dhr.in).
Insider tip: Louis Vuitton custom-made the retro-looking bags that the brothers carry. Make sure your luggage is appropriately stylish, as well.
ENGLAND
The flick: “Atonement”
On location: For Keira Knightley, one of the highlights of filming this flick in Shropshire were the pub crawls in this quintessentially English country region. She didn’t divulge to The Post specifically where the best all-night drink-fests took place, but we have it on authority that the restaurant at the tony country inn, The Feather’s at Ludlow, was a fave spot. A 15th century coaching inn, it’s been called, “the handsomest inn in England.” (thefeathersatludlow.co.uk).
But the film wasn’t shot in a pub – the actual house, which saw the brunt of the action, was at nearby Stokesay Court. This country pile is owned by a school friend of Princess Di’s. They’re now doing private, “by appointment only” “Atonement” tours of the house. The tour lasts an hour, takes you through all the rooms and outdoor locations where the movie was made and ends with a proper tea (stokesaycourt.com).
Insider tip: Ludlow is also the site of a famous street market where La Knightley was seen shopping for food on her afternoons off.
MOROCCO (AND BEYOND!)
The flick: “The Bourne Ultimatum”
On location: We’re not sure if the Eurostar bookings spiked after Jason Bourne traveled from Gare du Nord to Waterloo in pursuit of a hapless journalist but the best way to get a feel for the pursuit is to hop a train and do it Jason’s way – fast and furious. Note: Eurostar’s London hub has since moved to St. Pancras station (eurostar.com).
Bourne freaks should take the ferry (frs.es) from Tarifa, Spain, to Tangier, Morocco, for a walk in the area where Bourne’s North African chase sequences were filmed.
Insider tip: Berlin plays big in the Bourne films. If you go, know that one of the world’s freakiest spy museums is in nearby Leipzig. At the Stasi Museum, you can see how the secret service in East Germany operated (Dittrichring 24, Leipzig).
TEXAS
The flicks: “There Will Be Blood”/”No Country for Old Men”
On location: Marfa, Texas, is familiar to film fans as the backdrop of the oil-family-feud ’50s film “Giant,” starring James Dean.
This year the town stars in not one but two Oscar-nominated films.
Dean fans have been visiting the town since the ’50s; tourism is one of Marfa’s major industries.
The other is art. Artist Donald Judd acquired the local military base, Fort D.A. Russell, in the early 1970s and since then Marfa has lured independent artists, galleries and art foundations by the score. So if you love modern art, desert scenery and movie memorabilia, Marfa’s bipolar emo-slash-cattle-rancher style is for you.
Stay at El Paisano Hotel, where cast members and crew of “Giant,” “There Will Be Blood” and “No Country for Old Men” stayed (reservations at [800] 662-5517).
The Marfa Presidio County Museum offers a walk back in time to when Marfa was a frontier town and cowboys and oil barons ruled the roost ([432] 729-4140).
Insider tip: Jett’s Grill at the El Paisano was a favorite for film-crew coffee klatches.
LOG ON
WANT to keep up on what’s being filmed where? There’s always been IMDB (imdb.com) for that. But for more immediate, up-to-the-minute know-how, check out On Location Vacations for daily blog posts keeping you up to speed on what’s filming where, plus other useful gossip. (onlocationvacations.com.)
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