Vienna

Before Sunrise

Walking around Vienna--what could be easier? Unfortunately the movie was not filmed in order; they get off the trolley in one section and suddenly they’re walking in a cemetery miles away. Although I did find the boat restaurant and the old café where they had the imaginary phone conversation. The train station and airport don’t count.

But the cool thing in Vienna is the Reisenrad, which has now been featured in three movies that I know of, all on my favorites list. It’s this huge Ferris Wheel, but instead of being simple open-air seats, these are something like train boxcars. You can get about twenty people up in one of those things, but as you see from the movies, you can request one for just you and your hunny. (Is that the appropriate contemporary spelling?)

The first movie to have the Reisenrad was The Third Man, a thriller from the 40s or 50s which is famous for a quote, and it did take place while the main characters were up there:

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed. They produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace. And what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

Second movie filming there was the Living Daylights, generally thought as one of the worst James Bonds, but it’s my favorite. Our hero takes the heroine de jour up there and, even though he’s undercover as her lover’s friend, still manages to seduce her. That is some inspiring view! When the ride stops and the door opens, they’re on the floor kissing; I paid the guy a few bills before I got on to repeat the line from the movie: “Do you want another ride?” (okay, not the greatest ever, but I was being true to the script.)

And of course Before Sunrise, where Jesse and Celine have their first kiss. That view again. . . luckily the guys in the Third Man didn’t kiss, even though back then Orson Welles weighed only triple figures.

And you can forget about Before Sunrise’s sequel, Before Sunset--that’s in Paris, find someone else, ain’t settin’ foot there ever again.

Speaking of Living Daylights, the skydiving scene over Gibraltar. . . sounds cool, but I’d rather hire a chopper. I’ve been forced to skydive-dove-diven twice, literally pushed out of the plane and threatened with court-martial if I didn’t, so it’s not something I’d do voluntarily. Still sounds cool, though.