With the remnants of a winter storm piled around my wind-chilled world, I can’t help but equate the anticipation of spring with the scene of Bambi and his mother finding a welcome swatch of grass in their snowy woods.
I’ll point out the obvious ones :-)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring (2003, Kim Ki-duk) is season porn.
Rohmer’s season quadrilogy.
Ozu always exploited the seasons for titles, but within the film, the seasons’ passing are noted but are neither exploited nor thoroughly examined with season-specific imagery.
‘Winter Light’ for the title and the content obviously and it is one of my favorite Bergman films.. I haven’t yet seen his ‘Autumn Sonata’, but I’m guessing that might work. And now that I think about it, ‘Smiles of a Summer Night’ and ‘Wild Strawberries’ for summer…
I’m not sure about Spring, though.
I think steven soderberg is EXTREMELY good at this….i.e. Traffic is probably the best example. It feels hot when theyre in mexico and san diego and cool, cold, and distant in virginia.
I suppose you’re right about Winter being the easiest, a few more films come to mind. ‘Affliction’ and ‘A Simple Plan’. I’m having a real hard time with Spring so I’ll just throw out one of my favorite films from childhood. ‘Darby O’gill and the Little People’. I haven’t seen it in years but I’m sure it was Ireland in Springtime…..or maybe it was a soundstage in SoCal.
I think Snow Angels for Winter. I am not sure this counts but I watched The Ascent yesterday and I think that is also very good for winter.
Summer:
Savannah Smiles (ack! I can’t believe I was forced to remember that!)
Winter Light
Visconti’s Le Notti Bianche [White Nights] … winter on a sound stage, but surely a winter.
Paul Schrader’s Affliction … a film that pretty much sums up the New England winter, a subject with which I am all too familiar.
I feel cold during the opening scenes of Fanny and Alexander- best holiday scene, BTW.
Winter- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Insomnia
Summer- Do the Right Thing
Le Notti Bianche for winter.
I just noticed you said that. I’m done.
Fall/Winter – All The Real Girls … this captures the bleakness of winter not the whole winter wonderland aspect but its heaviness and its darkness. The fact that there is no snow makes gives the film a deep palette of browns and grays that perfectly represents the claustrophobia of factory town life.
Do the Right Thing, Atonement and My Summer of Love for Summer
Moderated
Eric Rohmer is the master of summer, light and warm, full of fresh greens and blues, often graceful and uplifting as a swallow, and with a love of water and the sea- eg The Green Ray, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Claire’s Knee, A Summer Tale, Pauline at the Beach, The Romance of Astrée and Celadon.
Winter? Shepitko’s “Ascent”. That’s winter.
… and speaking of the Russian winter there’s “Alexander Nevsky”.
Hannah and Her Sisters
Summer – any western, make that Spaghetti Western
Winter: Mon Oncle Antoine
L V
Sometimes it seems that the weather/the seasons are used almost as a secondary character in film. Some films allow the seasons to step up to the forefront and become part of the story. Winter examples were the easiest for me to come up with… the cold and the snow seem to really carry a lot of feeling/emotional baggage which a film maker can easily tap into.
It’s not Hot or Cold (i.e. City of God or Doctor Zhivago) that I’m asking about, but rather the use of the seasons as setting.
The first to come to mind for me were the following:
Summer- Do The Right Thing. You can FEEL the heat, the orange and red saturation is so effective. Sprinklers, ice cubs, fans. It’s a good one to watch in the dead of winter. Barton Fink is a good one too (the peeling wallpaper?)
Fall- When Harry Met Sally (even though all seasons are covered here, their autumnal Central Park stroll lingers in memory… as does the jazz accompaniment)
Winter- Fargo, The Ice Storm, Kieslowski’s White
Spring? Anyone?