The filming of the winter portion, which lasted one month, took place in different locations of the Grand Hotel Europe, as in guest rooms, main public areas, and restaurants. With its lovingly restored Art Nouveau interior, L’Europe Restaurant became perfectly integrated into this historical and dramatic love story.
The story takes place towards the end of the sixties during the period of the so-called “Race to Space” between the American and Soviets superpowers. That’s how starts a love story deemed impossible between a European of Hebrew origin, who emigrated to America, and a young Russian girl, who desires to become a cosmonaut and dreams, like many of her age, of setting a foot on the Moon.
Director Guglielmi wanted absolutely this film to be shot in St Petersburg, mainly at the Grand Hotel Europe, which – as an historical, cultural and culinary landmark – has played an important role in the life of St Petersburg for over 130 years.
The film, which stars the acting skills of the young Russian actress Lyanka Gryu together with the Bosnian actor Branko Djuric – Oscar winner for the film “No Man’s Land” by Tanovic – also features the participation of the Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini and Russian actors Philipp Azarov, Nadezhda Shumilova, Yuri Itskov, Olga Belyavskaya and Igor Golovin in particular.
“The Moon’s First Night” is an international co-production between Italy, Russia, Switzerland and Poland and is filmed with live sound in both English and Russian languages.
During the last years, Grand Hotel Europe has been for many times the movie set and hero of different movie productions, as for example “Lilacs” (“Ветка сирени”) by Pavel Lungin, “Аssа-2” (“Acca-2”) by Sergey Solovev, “Sonka, the Gold handle” (“Сонька Золотая ручка”) by Victor Merezhko, “Mania of Zhizel” (“Мания Жизели”) by Alexey Uchitel and “Autumn Marathon” (“Осенний марафон”) by Georgy Daneli. The Grand Hotel Europe was also part of the plot in the 1995 James Bond movie Golden Eye, starring Pierce Brosnan.
The Grand Hotel Europe is also pleased to be one the favorite hotels of international and national celebrities such as Roger Moore, Kim Basinger, Richard Gere, John Malkovich, Nikita Mikhalkov and Stanislav Govorukhin.
