The Bourne Identity film locations
Film locations: France; Italy; Czech Republic; Greece
The Bourne Identity: Jason Bourne arrives in Paris: Quai Saint Bernard, Paris
The first of the Bourne franchise trots around Europe, supposedly in France and Switzerland but most of the film was shot in Paris and around Prague in the Czech Republic.
The opening scene of amnesiac Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) rescued from the Mediterranean by a fishing crew was filmed, not out in the ocean, but with a boat ted to the harbour of Imperia, on the coast of northwest Italy in the Liguria region (the raging storm was added digitally).
Imperia consists of two historical districts – Porto Maurizio and Oneglia, which lie on either side of the River Impero. Recovering, but still with no memory of his past, it’s at the neighbouring harbour of Oneglia that Bourne is put ashore.
The Bourne Identity: the Parisian apartment of Jason Bourne: 104 avenue Kléber, Paris
With only the details of a numbered Swiss bank account, Bourne heads to ‘Zurich’. In fact, the city in which he arrives is Prague, where he discovers fearsome combat skills when a couple of Swiss cops hassle him for sleeping on a park bench. The park is Prague’s Kampa Park on Kampa Island, alongside Certovka stream south of Charles Bridge.
The ‘US Embassy’, at which Bourne first meets Marie (Franka Potente), was a defunct branch of HypoBank about to be redeveloped as a luxury hotel. With the promise of $20,000, Bourne persuades Marie to drive him to Paris. The snowy road along which they drive is in Cesky Sibir (Czech Siberia), outside Prague.
The Bourne Identity: the ‘Treadstone’ safe house: 2 Place du Marché St Catherine, Paris
Bourne and Marie spend their first night in Paris in the car, parked on the Quai Saint Bernard, on the Left Bank opposite Ile Saint Louis.
Bourne visits his apartment, and discovers that somebody seriously wants him out of the way. Given as “104 rue du Jardin”, the apartment is 104 Avenue Kléber, at rue de Longchamp, just north of Trocadero (Métro: Trocadero).
The ‘Treadstone’ safehouse, in which Nicky (Julia Stiles) receives her instructions, is 2 Place du Marché Sainte-Catherine, above Le Marché restaurant, in the green and usually relaxing 18th century square in the Marais district.
The Bourne Identity: the mansion of Wombosi: 11 Place des États Unis, Paris
The palatial mansion of dictator Wombosi (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), in which he's assassinated by The Professor (Clive Owen), is the former townhouse of Marie-Laure de Noailles, now made over by designer Philippe Starck as HQ of Baccarat (opened in 1764, one of Europe's leading purveyors of full-lead crystal.) at 11, Place des États Unis (Métro: Boissière). Downstairs is a glittering boutique, upstairs the museum houses show-off pieces made for princes and maharajahs, a painted cabinet by Gérard Garouste, and the distressed-chic Cristal Room, where you can breakfast, lunch or dinner.
The Bourne Identity: Bourne leaves his red bag at the rail station: Gare du Nord, Paris
Bourne leaves his precious red bag in the luggage lockers at the Gare du Nord and, outside, Marie takes the dangerous option of sticking with him.
The Bourne Identity: Bourne leaves his red bag at the rail station: Gare du Nord, Paris
The Gare du Nord, one of the six large termini of the main line SNCF network, is supposedly the busiest station in Europe, serving the north of France, as well as international destinations including the United Kingdom, Belgium and The Netherlands
It’s back to the Czech Republic for the ‘French’ farmhouse, where the couple bring trouble to a family when they're targeted by The Professor, which is in the village of Suchdol, not far from Ruzyne, Prague’s international airport.
The Bourne Identity: Bourne traces his alter ego: Hotel Regina, Place des Pyamides, Paris
Bourne discovers that his alter ego, John Michael Kane, has been staying at the Hotel Regina, 2 Place des Pyramides, facing the Louvre (Métro: Tuileries; Pyramides), where Marie goes on a recce into the hotel’s grand lobby.
The Bourne Identity: Marie tells Bourne she’s got Kane’s details: Jardin des Tuileries, Paris
It’s in the Jardin des Tuileries opposite, that Marie reveals that – without any of Bourne’s elaborate planning – sheís managed to get Kane’s phone records from the desk clerk.
The Bourne Identity: Bourne follows a lead: La Défense Grande Arche, Paris
Armed with this information, Jason Bourne is able to check out ‘Alliance Securite Maritime’ at the gigantic hollow cube of La Grande Arche de la DÈfense (Métro: La Défense Grande Arche). The 100 metre tall arch, built in 1989 west of the city, is the centre of Paris’s business district. Glass-sided lifts will whizz you to the top of the Arch (tickets €9), where there’s a great view to the Arc de Triomphe, a restaurant, gift shop, a museum of computers (mysteriously) and not a lot else.
The Bourne Identity filming location: Bourne sets up a meeting with Conklin: Samaritaine building and the Pont Neuf, Paris
The bridge on which Bourne sets up a meeting with Treadstone chief, Conklin (Chris Cooper), is Pont Neuf, which – despite its name – is the oldest bridge over the Seine. He watches from the roof of the Samaritaine Building. Once a flagship store, this striking building is closed for the foreseeable future while structural problems are sorted out. Pont Neuf is, naturally, the setting for the 1990 romance Les Amants du Pont Neuf.
The Bourne Identity filming location: the Treadstone operation is closed down: rue de Jarente, Paris
The final assassination, which shuts down the whole Treadstone operation once and for all, is on rue de Jarente, behind the safe house.
It’s on the Pont des Arts, alongside the Louvre, that Bourne walks away and mysteriously disappears. The delicate wooden bridge is the scene of the failed suicide attempt in Boudu Sauvé des Eaux, Jean Renoir's 1932 classic (remade by Hollywood as Down and Out in Beverly Hills), and is also featured in Amélie.
The Bourne Identity filming location: Bourne walks away from Treadstone: Pont des Arts, Paris
Bourne finally tracks down Marie to the Greek island of Mykonos, where she’s running a scooter rental business at Sea Satin Market in Little Venice, beneath the island’s famous windmills.
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The Bourne Identity, 2004
Director
Cast
visit the film locations
Paris flights: Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport
Stay: Hotel Regina, 2 Place des Pyramides,(tel : +33 (0)1.42.60.31.10) (Métro: Tuileries; Pyramides)
Visit: La Grande Arche de la DÈfense
Visit: Mykonos
Trivia
Sequels The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum