The Netflix limited series All the Light We Cannot See tells the story of two teenagers living through World War II in Europe, and the show was filmed in numerous locations on the continent. The 2023 drama miniseries is based on the 2014 war novel of the same name by Anthony Doerr, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Following its success, Netflix acquired the rights to bring the work to life onscreen and hired Shawn Levy to direct all four episodes and Steven Knight to write them. It was a match made in heaven, and producers spared no expense to ensure the show captured the essence of the war in the story.
The cast of All the Light We Cannot See includes Aria Mia Loberti as Marie-Laure LeBlanc, Nell Sutton as young Marie-Laure LeBlanc, Louis Hofmann as Werner Pfennig, Lars Eidinger as Reinhold von Rumpel, Hugh Laurie as Etienne LeBlanc, Mark Ruffalo as Daniel LeBlanc, and Marion Bailey as Madame Manec. These actors and the show’s crew members traveled to various locations in Europe to film scenes for the Netflix limited series from March to July 2022. Although a significant number of sequences were captured on sets that the production team built, many others were filmed on location in France and Hungary.
Saint-Malo, France
One of the most important All the Light We Cannot See filming locations is Saint-Malo, a port in Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, France, with a rich history. The Battle of Saint-Malo, which occurred from August to September 1944 between the Allied forces and German troops, is depicted in the miniseries, so it would only make sense if it was filmed in the French coastal town. The show begins with one of the main characters, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, and her father, Daniel, fleeing Paris following the Nazi’s occupation of the city, and they settle in Saint-Malo, which is located on the seaside in northern France. Anthony Doerr, the author of the book, told Tudum by Netflix:
“It was really important to me to try to make sure every little detail of Saint-Malo was right so that somebody who lived through that siege would be persuaded that the verisimilitude of this project was real.”
Since the port city was so integral to the story and because the town, which was partially destroyed due to bombing during the war and had to be rebuilt, still feels and looks like 1940s France, it was important for the production team to film there. Saint-Malo is the only filming location that was actually referenced and played a significant role in All the Light We Cannot See. Meanwhile, different settings throughout Europe doubled as every other town depicted in the limited series.
Budapest, Hungary
Whereas the Saint-Malo scenes in All the Light We Cannot See were captured in the French port town, the cast and crew did not travel to Paris, France, for the Parisian sequences. Instead, the streets of Budapest, Hungary, were made to look like Paris in the 1940s in the television show. As mentioned above, the miniseries begins with Marie-Laure and Daniel moving from their home in Paris to Saint-Malo to escape from the Nazis (even though the war unfortunately eventually makes its way to the northern port town, which is when Marie-Laure meets and connects with a German soldier named Werner Pfennig).
According to Radio Times, the cast and crew filmed at the Festetics Palace, Zichy Castle in Sopoly, and the Exchange Palace in Budapest. Plus, shots of Vécsey Street doubled as the iconic Champs-Élysées in Paris. It’s unclear why Budapest was used as a replacement for the Paris street scenes in All the Light We Cannot See. However, it is possible that it was cheaper for the production to use the Hungarian capital or that the city was better suited to convey to the audience that the story took place in the 1940s in Europe. Related: All The Light We Cannot See: Where You’ve Seen The Cast
Villefranche-de-Rouergue, France
The final location used during principal photography for All the Light We Cannot See was Villefranche-de-Rouergue, a commune in the Aveyron department in France. Simon Elliott, the television show’s production designer, explained to Tudum by Netflix that Villefranche-de-Rouergue was used for some of the exterior shots of the streets of Saint-Malo in the series. The production team worked on redressing a part of the commune to give it the look that was required for the story that takes place in 1940s France. They modified the shops and buildings until they achieved their vision for All the Light We Cannot See.
Sources: Tudum by Netflix, Radio Times
