FURKA PASS, SWITZERLAND - 2025
No film franchise has enhanced the fame of specific locations more than Bond. To be the backdrop narrative to a sequence in a Bond movie - no matter how dated - bestows heavyweight status on the map coordinates. It is product placement at its most acute level.
In 1964, Goldfinger, the second 007 movie, was released and, in retrospect, it was the key to the franchise. The movie recouped its investment in just two weeks and is still cited as the film that established many of the iconic elements and tropes of Bond movies. For many aficionados, Goldfinger is THE Bond movie - Rotten Tomatoes - the exacting review aggregation website, score it at 99%.
Goldfinger rammed home the Box Office of Sean Connery and brought names like Oddjob and Pussy Galore into our lives. It also made famous the hairpin bends of the Furka Pass in Switzerland and the quintessential Belle Époque buildings lining its route. The jewel in the crown of these is the iconic Belvedere Hotel - which sits precisely on the inside of one of the hairpins. It is an Alpine monument to the glittering days of the Swiss hotel industry in the late 19th century.
I do not like driving, or even being driven, on mountain pass roads - especially ones with token barriers accompanying 3000-foot drops. Bond may have enjoyed his car chase on this road, but I am no Bond and this project certainly reminded me that I have some embarrassing vertigo issues.
The Furka pass is inaccessible until late May and, given my leaning to film with as much snow in the backdrop as possible, this was always going to be an early June shoot. The Belvedere Hotel is long closed for business and I want to thank the owners for allowing to us to open the shutters and somehow put some lights on. I am sure Wes Anderson would have done the same and it did make all the difference.
If there was ever to be a Bond Hotel - I think it should be here.