Starting from the 1950s the two most important lakes in Tuscia, Lake Vico and Lake Bolsena, have been chosen by several film directors as filming locations.

In the beginning, Lake Vico was selected as a set for some swashbuckling and melodramatic movies produced by Fortunato Misiano's "Romana Film". Subsequently, this enchanting natural location was featured in the popular comedies set in the Middle Ages L'armata Brancaleone (1966) and Brancaleone alle crociate (1970), both directed by Mario Monicelli.
Lake Vico was chosen as a filming location also for the fantasy movie The Island of the Fishmen (1979) by Sergio Martino, for the comedy starring Alberto Sordi Il Marchese del Grillo (1981), directed by Mario Monicelli and for the melodramatic These days (2016), directed by Joseph Piccioni.

Lake Bolsena was initially selected for two films that openly declare in their respective titles their preponderant lakeside setting: the dramatic Violenza sul lago (1954) by Leonardo Cortese and the thriller The Possessed (original title: La donna del lago, 1965) by Luigi Bazzoni and Renzo Rossellini.
The Bisentina island, the largest of the two islands of Lake Bolsena, served as a location for movies of various genres, among which the comedy Stasera a casa di Alice (1990), interpreted and directed by Carlo Verdone, and The Wonders by Alice Rohrwacher.

 

Photo: Peter Baldwin in La donna del lago by Luigi Bazzoni e Franco Rossellini (1965).
©Archivio Fotografico - Cineteca Nazionale Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia

Written by Franco Grattarola