MovieChat Forums > The Ghost Writer (2010) Discussion > Great locations .....

Great locations .....

posted 9 years ago by PimpinAinttEasy
6 replies | jump to latest

everything about them - just getting there on that big boat, the small hotel and its well stocked bar serving club sandwiches and clam chowder, that great house where brosnan lived, the empty private (?) beach and all the deserted roads mcgregor cycled in the rain were awesome.

GHOST WRITER was almost like a film of a place. i mean, the locations added so much to the movie. they were very well shot. this is how the rich and the powerful live. faraway from normal society.

[–] hilaryjrp 9 years ago

Roman Polanski says exactly that in the DVD extras, that the house is a character. The hotel was closed for the season when they filmed in it.

You put it very well, that the film was a film of a place. It's like Chinatown in that respect, and I happen to think it's better than Chinatown.

[–] PimpinAinttEasy 9 years ago

oh ok. i did not listen to the commentary. i'll check it out, thanks.

[–] dlynch843 9 years ago

'Chinatown' was Polanski's desert movie--yellow, tan, brown being predominant colors. 'The Ghost Writer' is his 'rain' movie. I loved the stark beach scenes, the distant lighthouse, the greyness. Much of it was filmed on the German island of Sylt, near the Danish border on the North Sea. I, too liked the bike ride in the rain.

[–] hilaryjrp 9 years ago

Yes! I met--on IMDB, in fact--a person whose family lives on the next closest island. I guess if you live in Schleswig-Holstein (sp!), you aren't as swept away by the setting--which in fact are not solely due to the island. There are three other discrete places that mean as much as the island, and a fourth non-geographical "place": 1) the House; 2) Martha's Vinyard; 3) the ferry; and 4) most importantly, isolation.

I think The Ghost Writer is far superior to Chinatown for this reason: it out-Hitchcock's Hitchcock in presenting a guy getting lost in evil increasingly over his skill-set, because it emphasizes his isolation.

You are 100% right however about "palettes."

[–] danilkak 9 years ago

Agreed. Loved the atmosphere in the movie.

[–] benGsboat 9 years ago

The mood makes this movie. The scene with McGregor being followed to the ferry is classic Polanski.