Venice is an open air film set and the zoom narrows on Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, one breathtaking late gothic edifice in San Luca Orson Welles fell in love with during the filming of Othello.
The troupe arrives in Laguna to film the first act which Shakespeare cast in Venice. Too many delays and too little money prevent the film director from leaving for Cyprus where he would have recorded the final scenes. For this reason, the arcade of the Palazzo Ducale appears in the film instead of the Greek island and the Bovolo, a Venetian term referring to the spiral staircase of Palazzo Contarini, forms the scene for the rear façade of Desdemona’s house.
From fourteenth century architectural masterpiece to main rôle.
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