Prague and Film at UNYP

So you’re a film lover looking to study abroad? Prague has been chosen by filmmakers from around the world as the location for shoots. Not only can you tour these spots, but you can also learn more about films at UNYP. You can either join our Film club for discerning movie buffs, you can also take our Viral Video Production Class and enter the 48 Hour Film project where UNYP students finished second in 2015.

Prague’s architectural beauty and diversity allow it to not only give a movie an “Old Europe” feeling, but Prague can become quite the actress, standing in for her sisters Paris, Vienna,  London, and other European cities. Here’s just some of the movies that have featured Prague:

Amadeus

Miloš Forman came back to Prague to film his masterpiece and Prague got to play Vienna. Many of the streets in the Old Town make an appearance. Mozart’s apartment in the movie is located close to the Estate Theatre, where a number of the opera scenes were filled, and the Archbishop’s Palace at Prague Castle stood in for the Austrian emperor’s home.

Mission Impossible

Tom Cruise’s first mission as Ethan Hunt began in Prague, with some very impressive appearances by Charles Bridge, the Old Town Square, and a couple of Prague’s stately palaces in the Lesser Town. It’s also a movie where Prague gets to play itself. However, the swanky glass aquarium bar the movie places on Old Town Square is sadly a work of fiction.

XXX

This Vin Diesel vehicle takes some amazing liberties with Prague’s geography. You can see Diesel run from some bad guys down stairs near Prague Castle, turn a corner, and end up in front of the Municipal House on Náměstí Republiky halfway across the city. The final chase sequence along the Vltava River would have been mostly accurate had it not implied that the Alps rose just outside the city.

Casino Royal

This Bond re-boot has only a few of its opening scenes filmed in Prague’s streets, but the spa town of Karlovy Vary plays a prominent role in the film. It’s the location of the Grand Hotel Pupp, the stand-in for Casino Royal in Montenegro where the climatic poker game takes place. You can also spot Czech Rail’s Pendolíno high-speed train in the movie, where Bond has his fateful meeting with Vesper Lind.