A celebration for Bond fans: The exhibition “007 Action” in Vienna

In October 1986, James Bond, played by Timothy Dalton, came to Austria to film “The Living Daylights”, the 15th film in the series. 38 years later, the Aston Martin V8 in which Bond raced across the frozen Weissensee in Carinthia can be admired alongside many other original exhibits in the “007 Action” show in Vienna’s METAStadt. The agent himself skipped the gala pre-opening on Wednesday evening, but not his Bond girl at the time, Maryam d’Abo.

The 63-year-old Brit played the cellist and sniper Kara Milovy in “The Living Daylights” (the very German title of the film). She appeared in front of the camera with Dalton in Vienna for numerous scenes. What memories come to mind first? “The scene in which I was walking through the streets in an old part of Vienna and the tram drove past,” said d’Abo in an interview. “That was very impressive because it reminded me of the Cold War era, of all the images I had in my head from the film ‘The Third Man’.”

She also keeps thinking back to a scene in a concert hall: “John Barry (Bond composer, ed.) conducted an orchestra and I pretended to play the cello. That was wonderful.” Has she ever been back here since filming? “No, I haven’t,” answered the Briton, who is “often referred to as a Bond girl,” in German.

Everything a fan’s heart desires

“007 Action” (from September 7th) is a revised version of “James Bond in Motion”. “We are showing the largest and most beautiful collection of cars and things connected to James Bond that has ever been seen,” curator Nicolas Borenstein promised beforehand. In fact, on an area of ​​3,400 square meters, you can find pretty much everything a fan’s heart could desire: iconic vehicles for use on land, air and water, Q gadgets and watches. Numerous miniatures provide an insight into the filmmakers’ bag of tricks. Borenstein counted “more than 100 exhibits”. Videos, soundtracks and a bar (it can be a martini, but doesn’t have to be) round off the experience.

While large vehicles such as the flying machine “Little Nellie” (“You Only Live Twice”) or a damaged Eurocopter (“Spectre”) are impressive, the small but fine props document the creatives’ love of detail: for example, an alias passport for 007 or a Hong Kong newspaper that announced Bond’s death in “You Only Live Twice”.

In the cello case over the snow

A must in Vienna is the cello case in which Bond and Milovy slid over the snow downhill to Austria in “The Living Daylights” (coming from “Bratislava”!). “It was very scary,” laughed d’Abo. “I had to steer and make sure that the cello case went straight down. Timothy was sitting to my right and was much heavier than me. So the thing kept wanting to turn – and on one side there was a ditch, on the other the camera team was standing. There were also firecrackers hidden in the snow. They exploded as if someone was firing at us. I have a phobia of gunshots, though!”

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