Famous Movies filmed in Cambridge

Famous Movies filmed in Cambridge

This amazing city of Cambridge has played an important role in the cinema industry along the years, as the stage of many well-known Hollywood movies. But why are there so many famous movies being filmed in Cambridge? Well, one of the fundamental reasons is because of its famous university with 31 historical Colleges within the city. Another reason is down to the layout of the city with its scenic narrow streets and the beautiful river Cam that flows through the centre, which houses some of the most iconic bridges and buildings, that make up this famously photogenic city of Cambridge. This all comes together to make one of the most popular filming locations in the UK.

Top 6 Famous Movies shot around Cambridge: Bachelor of Hearts (1958)

Showcasing Cambridge University as an elite institution as well as sharing the insights of the student’s lives, is and has always been a famous theme for the British Cinema. So this being said, the first movie of our list is the ‘Bachelor of Hearts’. Besides the numerous scenes recorded around the colleges, this movie was also filmed around the River Cam. With Cambridge as the real background, this film tells the story of a German ‘exchange’ student, who got stunned by the traditional British customs and manners. This ‘not so popular’ romantic comedy, is a clear inside of how great is it to use Cambridge as a background not only visually but also as the narrative.

Chariots of Fire (1981)

The next is Chariots if Fire, where during the Olympics of 1924 the main characters portray a race between religions. One of the runners is a devoted Christian while the other is Jewish. In fact, the Jewish runner was a student from Gonville and Caius College. Although most of the interior scenes were filmed at Eton College, north of Windsor, Cambridge University was captured and plays a huge part in this movie.

Elizabeth – The Golden Age

Certainly the most noted movie which portraited Cambridge as its’ background was the biographical drama of the warrior Queen Elizabeth I of England. St John’s College was one of the sets of this movie, where Cate Blanchett as the Queen, represents the massive influence of her character on the history of her people during the Golden Age. There’s also an iconic scene in this movie shot along the River Cam with the Bridge of Sighs as the background.

Some kind of beautiful

Actually this romantic comedy is more based in Los Angeles, where there narrative of this story expands. Although, the movie starts around Cambridge, filming Pierce Brosnan who bring to life Richard Haig – a English Professor at Cambridge University. Therefore the initial scenes of this movie take place around our lovely city and historic university buildings. Leading up to LA where his love story with one of his undergraduate students take place.

The Man Who Knew Infinity

In addition to this list of famous movies filmed in Cambridge, there’s also this inspirational movie where Dev Patel, portaits an indian mathmatician named Srinivasa Ramanujan. A character that was succesfully admited into Cambridge University, becoming later on a pioneer in mathematical theories. Therefore most of the scenes in this movie took place at Trinity College. Evidently helping to tell this intellectual narrative into the perfect academic atmosphere.

The theory of Everything

At last but not least, ‘The theory of Everything’, one of the most successful British movies of all times. This biographical romantic drama about the personal and professional life of Stephen Hawking, performed by Eddie Redmayne, where Cambridge is the main location of the whole story. In fact, there’s a huge range of scenes taking place around our lovely city. For instance two of the most famous colleges, Trinity College and St John’s College. This is a great movie to watch before visiting the city, once the background is real Cambridge’s hidden gems. Hence, they filmed along Queen’s Road, along the famous College’s Backs, at Kitchen Bridge for the May Ball scene with the iconic firewok display.