Rainy day movies
Jay Dahl, filmmaker
In my book, one to two millimetres of rain is enough to justify a
nine-hour Sopranothon. My favourite bad weather DVDs at the
moment are just that: heavily serialized cable network series.
Breaking Bad, Summer Heights High, Mad Men and
Friday Night Lights: These shows are dangerously
addictive—you’ll find yourself recanting ‘just one more hit’ as you
shakily play season five of the The Wire, determined to see how
Omar gets it in the end. Thank god it’s raining outside. Even a couple
of clouds will do.
Tanya Davis, poet, musician
My favourite old movie to turn on rainy days is Dirty
Dancing. Because I love Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey; because I
know the script pretty much word-for-word and I like to talk along;
because the soundtrack is amazing and this film introduced me to some
artists that remain my favourites to this day (Solomon Burke, Otis
Redding) and because I’ve always wanted to be a dancer.
Daniel Ledwell, musician,artist
Though not his most well-known, Rope is my favourite Alfred
Hitchcock film (and I am a very big Hitchcock fan). It is just really
great and dark and has homoerotic overtones and snappy suits and great
dialogue. It is a thriller and a slow burn. Rainy days are meant for
old movies.
Andrea Dorfman, filmmaker
Gone with the Wind: I guarantee this will be one of the most
entertaining three-and-a-half hours of your life. Vivien Leigh is a
deliciously despicable heroine and her relationship with Rhett Butler
is just what we want in a romance: complicated; passionate and
perfect—in all the wrong ways. Their roiling love affair is set
against the sprawling backdrop of the American Civil War (I learned
more in this movie than I did in my grade 10 American history class)
where director Victor Flemmings has created sets and effects that rival
Lord of the Rings.
Jason Eisener, filmmaker
I love watching films that capture the feeling of the time of year.
The day school ends you have to kick off your summer with a screening
of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused. Other films that
capture it are The Sandlot, The Outsiders, Jaws,
Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Ernest Goes to
Camp. Nothing beats watching John Carpenter’s The Fog while
hearing the foghorn out in the harbour.
Eleanor King, artist, musician
A staple film of my childhood, I’m sure the aesthetic of
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (and the resulting series Pee-Wee’s
Playhouse) has had a significant influence on me as an artist. An
absurd story about Pee-Wee’s epic journey to find his stolen and
priceless bicycle. I love scenes with the fortune teller, the biker bar
and the incident with Large Marge. The opening automated-breakfast
sequence alone is worth the price of rental.
This article appears in Jun 18-24, 2009.
