Location Detective: Finding Pension Kleist

Sometimes the places you seek are not where you think they are

A Brief Scene in The Day of the Jackal

OK, we are not a police force, and we are not authorised to investigate coups, conspiracies and other anti-government activities that secret security services are authorised to address. But we are the Location Detectives, and our curiosity drives us when we venture on our missions to identify the filming locations of movie scenes. The scenes that many film lovers know, but aren’t aware where exactly they were filmed.

The Frederick Forsyth’s story, The Day of the Jackal, was filmed in 1973. And the key event of the story, where the whole conspiracy activity was set in place, happened in a quiet Vienna’s pension Kleist, where the OAS conspirators met “their man”, the professional assassin, later named as “The Jackal”.

This scene in the Forsyth’s novel, as well as in the Fred Zinnemann’s film, sets the tone for the whole story. It reveals the reasons of the OAS conspirators and explains all further actions of the Jackal, who took on the assassination task.

The scene is short, but rather memorable, as it, in a sense, sets the tone for the rest of the story. So, the curious film-lovers like us were eager to know where exactly this particular film scene was set. The events happened in Austria, Vienna. Does it mean the filming was made right there? Not necessary. It would me much cheaper to film such rather short footage (The Jackal crossing a street and entering a European-style building) in a studio. So, where was it actually filmed?

Looking for the Conspirators’ Hiding Place

The Jackal story spreads across five countries: France, United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy and Austria. It would be quite expensive to film every scene on locations in each respective country, rather than building the sets in one studio, wouldn’t it? So, the obvious answer would be – yes, the Pension Kleist scene was filmed somewhere in a studio set in France or England.

Well, as it appears, it wasn’t. We wouldn’t be the Location Detectives if we weren’t driven by our curiosity to find the actual filming location of the Kleist scene. And guess what – the scene was filmed right there, in Vienna!

It took us some effort to confirm that, but we eventually found out that the scene was, allegedly, filmed “in Vienna’s Prater Park”. Hooray, the Dom Perignon time? Not really…

Where is the Kleist Building?

Pinpointing Vienna’s well-known Prater Park was a small victory, but a bit too small. We examined a lot of Prater Park images and could not find anything resembling the old European façade of the Pension Kleist, as it was seen in the film, when the Jackal crossed a narrow Viennese street before entering in the decorated front entrance.

At this point one begins to think that the source of the information of Kleist set being in Prater Park may not have been truly reliable. Which was a very probable case. So, what do the Location Detectives do next?

Attention to Detail

It is very obvious that since 1973 many buildings, roads, walls and other objects have changed. Fences were painted, walls were covered with stucco, buildings were demolished or renovated. But some objects remain intact, and that’s what helps us to identify locations.

What did we see in the short scene when The Jackal crossed the street? The building on both sides of the street, the windows and doors, some minor architecture details. Incidentally, there was a background object in the picture. A Ferris Wheel. Well, this was something we could work with. Assuming that the Wheel was still there.

Unlike the entrance to the filmed “Pension Kleist”, the Ferris Wheen was easy to find: it is a centrepiece of the Prater Park. The famed Vienna’s Wiener Riesenrad (Viennese Giant Ferris Wheel). So, now we got something to work with! The Wheel was clearly seen in the scene where the Jackal was crossing the street before entering into the Pension building.

Nothing Near the Wheel!

The feeling of a find evaporated quickly. In the film footage, the Wheel was seen oriented by its axis towards the camera: it appeared as a giant clock face right behind the Jackal’s figure. Which gave us two directions to search our place: on either side of the Ferris Wheel, and clearly not along its plane.

Now, the Wiener Riesenrad is oriented approximately along the North-South direction. Which means that our filming location, if indeed set in Vienna (the Ferris Wheel could have been easily reproduced in a studio!), was either west, or east of the Wheel. And that’s where we were looking for it. But what do you think – it wasn’t nowhere near!

The Optics Can Be Deceiving

The sane people usually trust their vision. If you see an object nearby, it means it is where you see it. Oooops! Not always true when it comes to optics, lenses and cinematography!

If you circle around the Wiener Riesenrad, all you see is a typical recreation park landscape: pavilions, cafes, amusement for children – but nothing like a classical multi-storey European building. Prater Park is not a small site, and as you reach its limits and face Vienna’s streets, the Wheel already appears quite far away. So the question remains: did they build the “Pension Kleist” building on the Prater site and then it was demolished, or the Wheel itself was reproduced in a film studio, likely in a different country?

Well, in the Detective business patience often pays. When it became clear that the Prater Park does not have any solid buildings resembling the movie’s Pension Kleist, our search moved farther from the park. We still looked on the east and west of the Wheel’s plane, based on the Wheel’s appearance in the film. And moved deeper into Vienna’s streets.

And guess what? There it was! Vienna’s little street, Novaragasse! The recognisable façade, the windows and, especially, the entrance, which still features the same door’s design. And the Ferris Wheel is out there, in the plain view. But… It appears much smaller in size compared with the film’s view.

The Trick’s In The Lense!

But how come such a noticeable landmark looked so much different in reality – compared to the film’s view? The optics! Depending what lens you use to capture a picture – wide-angle, fish eye or telescopic, the picture’s background will look dramatically different. If you use a small pocket camera, rely on Google’s street view or take a picture using a long-focus lens, your picture’s background will look differently.

Apparently, the filming was done with a long-focus lens, which “brought” the background object, the Ferris Wheel, close to the filming plane. Hence the huge size of the Wheel in the film’s frame. The real-life view is very different, and even more different is Google’s street view filming, done with wide-angle cameras.

So, go figure! A potentially simple task of finding a filming location, which position was known with respect to the Ferris Wheel’s location and plane, ended up being a much more difficult affair. So, you should understand: if you see object in a feature film, their longitudinal arrangement is often compressed. And if you ever make your way to the filming location, do not expect to see objects exactly the way you saw them on the screen!