Besides the Obvious

Cambridge’s charm through Guadagnino’s eye

The Venice Film Festival 2025 celebrates not only cinema but also the landscapes that shape stories. Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt makes its world premiere this year, offering a layered drama filmed around Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The cobblestone streets, academic courtyards, and atmospheric riverside views bring a distinctive English backdrop that doubles as a character in the narrative. For travelers, the film becomes an invitation to step into Cambridge with fresh eyes, discovering how the ancient colleges and the quiet flow of the Cam play host to stories of ambition, intellect, and desire. This cinematic perspective transforms the city from a historic destination into a living stage, making visitors want to walk its alleys as if retracing the characters’ steps.

Gothic visions from Toronto to Edinburgh

Guillermo del Toro arrives in Venice with his reimagined Frankenstein, filmed across Toronto and Edinburgh. While Toronto offers urban energy and versatile backdrops, Edinburgh emerges as the film’s true gothic heartbeat. Its dramatic skyline, medieval Old Town, and looming castle give weight to Mary Shelley’s themes of creation and monstrosity. Travelers who follow in the film’s footsteps encounter contrasts between modern Canadian neighborhoods and centuries-old Scottish stone. This duality reflects del Toro’s visual style—grand, textured, and steeped in atmosphere. For cinema lovers, it provides a new excuse to pair a trip across the Atlantic with a cinematic pilgrimage into two cities that hold very different but equally evocative charms.

Milos, myth, and modern storytelling

Yorgos Lanthimos returns to Venice with Bugonia, a film that blends biting wit with surreal landscapes. Partly shot in UK cities but anchored by Greece’s Milos Island, it showcases surreal volcanic terrains, white rock cliffs, and turquoise waters that feel otherworldly on screen. Milos, already famous for Sarakiniko Beach and its lunar-like seascape, becomes even more irresistible when filtered through Lanthimos’ eye. The film underscores how Greek islands continue to inspire timeless myths while also offering fresh creative energy to contemporary storytellers. Viewers exiting the screening may find themselves searching flights to Milos, curious to stand at the same windswept edge where Lanthimos set his surreal human comedy.

Between Budapest, Gothenburg, Dublin, and Paris

Other festival highlights further expand this atlas of cinema. Radu Jude’s The Testament of Ann Lee, filmed in Budapest and Gothenburg, juxtaposes Central European history with Scandinavian modernity, reminding travelers that cinema can compress distances into a single visual breath. Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother spans New Jersey, Dublin, and Paris, weaving urban grit with poetic rhythms across continents. Each location tells its own story but also contributes to the film’s wandering soul. Venice 2025 thus stands as more than a film festival—it becomes a travel map, guiding audiences from one city to another, sparking dreams of journeys still to come.

Sources

Condé Nast Traveler, Reddit, People.com

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