When the eponymous protagonist of Noah Baumbach’s film Jay Kelly leaves Hollywood on a trip to Europe, his destination, the Tuscany region of Italy, becomes the setting for a parallel voyage down memory lane. The fictional movie star Kelly, played by real-life star George Clooney, is in Tuscany to receive an award at a film festival, but the life he’s lived offscreen — or the life he’s missed out on — confronts him at every turn.
Many of those turns are made on the train tracks that wind through the gorgeous Italian countryside, as Kelly makes his way to the film festival. For Baumbach, this journey was always part of his vision for the film: “I had the idea of a movie star and a train and Italy,” the writer-director says.
This type of voyage is one with a long legacy, explains Luigi Cantamessa, the General Director of the Italian State Railways Foundation. “Traveling on a heritage train in Italy is a unique experience because it combines three essential dimensions: the landscape, the history, and the emotion of the journey itself. The historic railway lines pass through areas where nature, art, and local traditions come together in a truly unparalleled way. From the sea to the mountains, from small villages to major cities, the train allows you to discover Italy at a more relaxed pace — one that invites you to observe and let yourself be carried along,” he says.
“This style of travel fits perfectly with the philosophy of slow tourism: a mindful, sustainable way of traveling that prioritizes the quality of time, the gradual discovery of places, and an authentic connection with the territory. Traveling on our historic trains therefore means not only moving from one place to another but experiencing a cultural and sensory journey that highlights the full richness of Italy’s heritage.”
Baumbach and his crew shot a large section of the film on location in Italy, specifically in the town of Pienza, which served as the home of the film festival, and at the Argiano winery near the village of Montalcino, where they filmed an important dinner scene. For Baumbach and his co-writer, Emily Mortimer, the setting was key to their process. “I knew Tuscany a little bit. Emily knew it better than I did,” says Baumbach. “What she was imagining was a lot clearer and more accurate than whatever I had in my head.”
The director quickly found himself at home in the country. “Being in Italy and visiting all those places and having time to scout them, and then living there and working with an Italian crew, you feel very much part of it,” he says. “You no longer feel like a tourist. We had our restaurant in Pienza that we’d all go to, and people would all come out and hang out while we were shooting scenes in the piazza. We got to know people in the town who would help us with things, too. Even in post-production, I would say, ‘Could you record some of the birds in your backyard?’ And they’d send us the recordings.”
For his part, Clooney owns a property on Lake Como and often calls Italy home. Over the years, he’s learned lessons from the Italian way of life that would benefit his character in Jay Kelly. “Italians often work to live. That’s why I stayed there and why I continued to go back: that there’s a celebration of life, in a way that we could learn from in the States,” says the actor. “We’re always in a hurry to get to the next destination. And the theme of this film is: You’re going to get to that next destination, and then you’re going to be in a hurry to get to the next one. Days turn into months and months turn into years, and it all goes by very quickly. So you want to make sure you can find a place to live your life along the way. Italy has always been that for me.”
And, adds Clooney about the film, “There are pieces that are just shockingly beautiful and wonderfully made — particularly the train and all the sequences on the train.”
“For the Fondazione FS, it was truly an honor to see one of our trains included in Jay Kelly,” says Cantamessa. Of course, not all of the scenes within the train were filmed on location. The train sets were painstakingly and masterfully created for the film.
“From the very beginning, we recognized the importance of the initiative and therefore made it possible to recreate the interiors of the ETR 252 Arlecchino in the London studios,” says Cantamessa. “I would like to clarify, however, that the sets built for the film are not exact replicas of the real train interiors.” However, in this article’s accompanying photos, the original train can be seen; it was, as Cantamessa says, “a symbol of Italy’s economic boom in the 1960s,” adding: “Our trains preserve an important part of Italy’s railway heritage and cultural memory, and every opportunity to showcase them to an international audience represents a step forward in the Foundation’s mission.”
Jay Kelly is a story about self-reflection and questioning your choices; shooting in Italy connected it to a sense of spirituality and history, especially when juxtaposed with Los Angeles, where the film begins. “As Ron (Adam Sandler) says in the movie, ‘Death is so surprising, particularly in LA.’ I think LA is a kind of place where you feel like, ‘I might actually live forever.’ In Italy it’s hard to feel that way,” says Baumbach. “I think there’s something where mortality gives you permission to be human. All the religious iconography and the crosses, it’s a real contrast from Hollywood. It was important to actually be in those worlds.”
