AUSTRIA – Vienna, the Volksoper & Bond’s “sniper room” // The Living Daylights (1987)
There are uglier places for an assassination: This Vienna spot offers both a chocolate shop and a superb opera house!
Why Bond was here
James Bond (Timothy Dalton) is assigned on a mission in Bratislava. He is supposed to take out a young Soviet sniper – in fact the cellist Kara Milovy (Maryam d’Abo). She has a play at the Bratislava opera, in fact the Volksoper in Vienna. And Bond hides in an apartment across the street, in fact a famous Vienna sweets shop. He soon realizes, that Kara is not a professional killer but a mere KGB tool – and a bigger conspiracy unfolds behind her back.
The Vienna Volksoper – transformed into a Soviet Bratislava version
How you gonna get there
Both locations – the Volksoper and the “Sniper Room” – are real and on location just like in the movie. Okay, they are in Vienna though, not in Bratislava.
The Volksoper is at Währinger Straße 78, the “Sniper Room” in the apartment above Confiserie “Zum süßen Eck” (“At the sweet corner”) at the junction of Währinger Straße and Schlagerstraße.
You can scroll around both locations right here:
Good to know
The best – and Bondiest – way to reach the Volksoper is with tram line 42. This is the same tram line, that is used in the movie to get to Karas apartment in the “Antonigasse” (read more about that location here). The tram stop is named “Volksoper”, just like the location. Metro line U6 also stops here and connects “Volksoper” to the city center.
The Confiserie, or chocolate shop, was closed due to renovation, when we were there. But folks in Vienna told us, it is one of the best places to shop sweets in town. So when you are up for a night at the opera – come early and get your treats at the Confiserie “Zum süßen Eck”.
© 2015 Huntingbond (1,3), © 1977 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation (2)
First I want to ask you something more about this film (the living daylights):
What is the title of the music that is played by Kara the first time we see her playing in the Conservatoire (watched by Bond, Saunders and Koskov) in the ‘Volksoper’ just before the defection of Koskov?
Secondly, I believe the conversation between Bond and Kara was not recorded in Schonbrunn park, as in the beginning of the scene you can see in the background a sort of rounded wall with a balustrade on top and specially rounded-cut hedge-plants right in front of it. I am pretty sure of it that the conversation was completely filmed in the Schwarzenberg park on the south side of the palace (the middle park road comes to this rounded wall with balustrade) you can clearly see this wall and balustrade in ‘Google maps’ if you tilt the picture. Nobody has mentioned it anywhere on any website…!
Why my interest? I intend to go back to Vienna to revisit all places I have been on my honeymoon 31 years ago and I also want to visit all the living daylights locations in Vienna. I was on honeymoon in Vienna from october 13 to october 20 in 1986 and my aunt and uncle who lived there back then, told us that a filmcrew was in Vienna to film the next Bond movie. We found several ‘proofs’ of the filming setups of the Bond film back then, although we didn’t exactly know it was of that particular film. We saw the wooden floor setup upon which must have stood the vehicle with camera crane on the Maria-Theresia Platz. We saw some of the trucks of a filmcompany near the Schlosstheatre in Schonbrunn… (they filmed in Vienna from oct 6th to oct 18th according tot he book ‘the making of the living daylights’)
OK, I was more interested in my beautiful wife back then and did not take any pictures of these things (too expensive in those days) which I regret to this day.
I hope you can help me with this and perhaps ‘update’ the information about the conversation in the fiaker…
(in the movie you can see the fiaker entering Obeliskenallee but the picture switches to Schwarzenberg parc… and then the picture returns to schonbrunn with the waltzers and the park… see for yourself…)
Hi Marc,
the orchestra performs Mozart’s 40th Symphony in G minor.
Concerning your second question: The fiaker scene is a mix of different locations in Vienna.
1. They start in the city and ride past the Museum of Art.
2. Then they “jump” to the Schonbrunn Park and have the conversation there. Also the waltz scene has been filmed there. One can clearly recognize the backside of Schonbrunn Palace.
3. Finally the fiaker “jumps” back into the city center and arrives at Schwarzenberg Palais. The hotel entry is at the backside of the privately owned building. The park is to small for the whole conversation – so it had been filmed outside at Schonbrunn.
Schwarzenberg Palais is not open to the public, but we were allowed an entry. Here you can read more: https://huntingbond.com/palais-schwarzenberg-vienna/
All the best!
Hi, thanks for your reply. but I do not agree on your reasoning of the second point of the fiaker scenes. I have photographic proof it was completely filmed at Schwarzenberg palais garden. (I could send you a PDF with the comparing pictures if you send me a e-mail address…) it is only about the conversation between Bond and Kara in the Fiaker. True, they shot at Maria-Theresia platz, Obeliskenallee, Schonbrunn Waltzers at the palace and then finally arriving at Schwarzenberg palace to check in. but the conversation only in the fiaker was not filmed in Schonbrunn, it only had to look like it was filmed there…
send me an address and I’ll send you the PDF.
anyway, thanks for your kind and fast reply, I love your Bond website by the way, very good…
Marc
Then please send it to huntingbond@gmail.com – we’ll look into it!