Movies that capture the atmosphere of the city.
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The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974)
Film adaptation of native son Mordecai Richler’s 1959 novel by the same name. This comedy-drama, named 1974 Canadian Film of the Year, follows the short and dubious rise to power of Duddy Kravitz (Richard Dreyfuss), the brash, younger son of a Montreal working-class Jewish family. Explores themes of anti-Semitism and materialism. Filmed on location throughout Montreal and in the Ontario village of Elora.
Jesus of Montreal (1989)
The most famous film ever made about Montreal, by the city’s most famous director, Denys Arcand. About a group of actors who perform the Stations of the Cross on Mont-Royal at Eastertime, with disastrous results.
Montréal vu par... (1991)
Slightly avant-garde anthology of six shorts by well-known, young Montreal directors.
How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired (1990)
Adapted from the autobiographical novel by Dany Laferrière, a Haitian journalist who emigrated to Quebec in the 1970s, and has become one of the province’s best-known authors.
Léolo (1992)
The last of three films made by Jean-Claude Lauzon, who was the city’s most promising young filmmaker when he died in a plane crash in 1997. An unusual movie about a little boy coming of age in a working-class Plateau neighborhood. Quebec’s most popular male movie idol, Roy Dupuis, playing Quebec’s enduring hockey hero, Maurice “Rocket” Richard. Also has something to say about linguistic politics.
Ryan (2004)
Oscar-winning animated short produced by Canada’s famous National Film Board, about a once successful animator who panhandles in front of Schwartz’s Deli on the Main.
C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005)
Instant classic about a gay teenager coming of age in a working-class Montreal household—filled with rock and roll, hot fashions, and rueful signs of the times.
