Dear Kay,
Judy invited us over for supper Friday night, a spontaneous gathering to mark the blizzard. (It was a blizzard for Nashville, anyway—eight inches is epic in these parts.) Soup: delicious. Company: neighborly, and in that lucky thing that happens in Nashville sometimes, a music industry veteran was in the mix who had tales aplenty. I can never hear enough about the music business.
Walking home, we were mesmerized by the blanket of quiet that had fallen on our neighborhood. The transformation of suburban front yards, the frosting on every twig of every tree—we don’t see this very often. Everybody becomes young again. Out come stories of sleds and snowballs and the kid who slid into a mailbox, and we all remember when it seemed to snow a lot more than it does these days.
I’m craving snow movies. Here’s a batch for every possible taste. Links are to Amazon, where these can all be rented. Netflix streaming noted when available.
Dr. Zhivago. Epic doomed Russian revolution romantic snow.
The Shining. Stanley Kubrick superscary snow. (On Netflix streaming, too.)
Fargo. Creepy Coen Brothers snow.
March of the Penguins. Morgan Freeman-narrated snow.
Encounters at the End of the World. Documentary snow. Always challenging filmmaker Werner Herzog goes to Antarctica to meet the people who are willing to live on the edge. (On Netflix streaming, too.)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Suspenseful Daniel Craig Swedish snow.
Finally, the best snow movie of all time:
Groundhog Day. Bill Murray living the same day over and over, trying to win over Andie MacDowell.
Would love to hear more snow movie ideas—this is a deep, snowy category.
Love,
Ann
Everyone should watch Encounters at the End of the World… the penguin who stomps off to the distant hills…
We watch D’Jango Unchained and The Hunger Games. And we did a lot of shoveling. We couldn’t get the snowblower around to the back and when you have three Irish Wolfhounds that have to go, you shovel!
Since it snows about every 20 years in this part of Texas having a separate snow movie category isn’t a thing here. But two thumbs up for Groundhog Day and Fargo. Mom and I laugh because we decided to see Fago based on the movie poster…a blanket of white snow complete with snowy cabin and a little dead body cross stitched at the bottom. I think we were channeling Arsenic and Old Lace. It was a jaw-dropping surprise to say the least!
Snowball Express. A Dean Jones/Disney number first shown to me in third grade in the school gym as a pre-holiday treat. It’s goofy and always brings me back to childhood and 300 kids sitting on hard-seated school chairs, laughing their heads off.
I loved Snowball Express as a kid – I’ll have to watch it again now (I was a little afraid that I might not like it as an adult, but I’m a kid at heart and there aren’t too many kid movies that I don’t like). For another fun Disney snow movie, Snow Dogs is cute and has it’s hilarious moments (when Cuba Gooding meets up with the bear). Also, love Little Women and Grumpy Old Men.
Living here in hot Texas, I watch a lot of snow movies!
oops *its* (grammer police)
Big snowstorms always seem to bring out the best in people…blizzard parties, playing in the snow, neighbor helping neighbor! Just look at the pictures of NYC yesterday…so many people out partying in the beauty and novelty of so…much…snow! Sigh…if only that kindness could be the norm every day – the world would be much kinder and gentler! Dr. Zhivago gets my vote – it’s a classic!
Little Women is a great snow movie!
Little Women (Susan Sarandon/Wynona Ryder version) is my pick too! All that frosty-ness at the beginning!
I watched Snowpiercer on one of the movie channels a couple of weeks ago. Not bad in a hokey way. Plenty of snow there.
Check out Eight Below. http://youtu.be/zz7TGf1awDo
It didn’t get great reviews but I ran across it a few weeks ago and loved it. It definitely fits into the ‘Snow Movie’ category
Wasn’t there an ice fishing shack in the movie Grumpy Old Men?
Yes, one of my favorite snow movies!
Yes, Grumpy Old Men was filmed in MinneSnowTa. As was Fargo. A family friendly snow movie is Cool Runnings.
“MinneSnowTa”! It took me a few seconds to catch on… Thanks Suzzanne! 🙂
Here in Boston we’re unashamedly disappointed that this time the rest of the Eastahn Seabawd gets to play and we don’t. (Not shawt memory – just high threshold for pain.) My favorite snow movie is White Christmas. I know it’s seasonal shelf-life is ridiculously brief, but every single “first snow” I’ve ever seen I can’t help singing in my head that delicious four-part-harmony intro: “Snow … snow … snow … snow … SNO-O-O-O-W!”
And I thought I was the only disappointed Bostonian! I kinda like to shovel, even after Snowmaggedon 2015. The teenager goes out the back door, I go out the front door and we meet up somewhere in the driveway. Last year I learned to use the shovel like a catapult when the snow banks were over my head.
And isn’t there one of those ‘Bourne” movies with a lot of snow in the beginning? The one without Jason.
As a Michigander, I can totally relate. Our six person family had a total of six shovels…Papa, mama and four baby girl shovels.
Love that movie!
For an atmosphere similar to Fargo, try Wallander. It feels like it’s never light or warm in Sweden. The detective, played by Kenneth Branagh, may have seasonal affective disorder as well.
Loved the Swedish version of Wallander with Krister Henriksson in the lead. The only problem is that I don’t speak or understand Swedish which makes knitting anything complicated (as in not garter stitch) a disaster. Not that I haven’t done it – just that I have paid the knitting price!!
i always try to have a simple project going to work on while watching subtitles!
You’ve already picked my two favorites, Fargo and Groundhog Day. Fargo has the best snow picture ever, to my mind, when William Macy walks out into a nearly empty snow-filled parking lot . . . that screen-filling image so amazed me that at first I couldn’t even realize what it was.
But then it doesn’t snow where I live. Ever. For anyone who’s seeking rainy-day movies, however, I recommend Enchanted April, which moves from rainy London to sunny Italy. Delightful!
I would suggest Snow Cake (2006) with Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman, sadly fitting for this week.
Is there any place to stream this movie?
Snow Cake is lovely, and has Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver and you all really must watch it!
Best snow movie (bleak, haunting category): A Simple Plan with Bill Paxton, Billie Bob Thornton and Bridget Fonda. Worth seeing for the opening alone.
A Simple Plan is an amazing book, too. Forgot about how great that one is!
Here where I live (Western Oregon) 8 inches would also be epic snow! I love all your snowy movie choices, too. Encounters at the End of the World is a new title to me, and I will search it out. Thanks! Just in case the power goes out, don’t forget good snowy (print) books: The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson, and Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg. Oh, and not all-snow, all-the-time, but an excellent book nonetheless, The Greenlanders, by Jane Smiley. It’s one of my all-time favorites. “Set in the fourteenth century in Europe’s most farflung outpost, a land of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains.” ~ Goodreads. Have you read it?
Greenlanders, yes, and all three volumes of Kristin Lavransdottir.
I was thinking Little House on the Prairie, where the teacher sends the children home from school early because of the snow . . .
Greenlanders! Yes! Awesome book!
So good to hear book suggestions, too! I’ve always meant to read The Greenlanders. It sounds like exactly my cup of tea.
For hilarious snow, Man vs Wild Season 4 episode with Will Farrell traveling to Northern Sweden with Bear Grylls. LOL!
Dr. Zhivago shall always be my ultimate snow movie. I was too little to see it in the theater, but my mom played the soundtrack frequently. The thing that cemented it for me was when I was still a kid and we went to the Hollywood Wax Museum. They had super chilled the room with the Dr. Zhivago display and somehow occasional snowflakes wafted in the air. THAT was movie magic for this kid walking among the figures on the set they had created.
If you like a good disaster movie, how about The Day After Tomorrow? Crazy snow and Dennis Quaid…
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For the Obscure Movie suggestion, “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner”. The only Inuit written, produced, starred, filmed movie I’ve ever seen. Lots of snow, of course. My favorite scene is when the old woman adds more eggs to the hollowed rock she boils them in. Her husband asks why. She looks off into the distance and says “we’re going to have company”. A few hours later, her nephew shows up.
Oh yes, that is fantastic! Had forgotten all about it… Thanks for the reminder!
For a jaw-dropping combination of snow, knitting, and the Godfather of Soul , check out Ski Party with James Brown (in a Lopapeysa!!) and the Flames as the ski patrol.
Or, on a whole ‘nother level, to say the least, I love Kurasawa’s version of The Idiot. The Japanese name is Hakuchi. Which reminds me, for snowbound ambiance in books it’s hard to beat Kawabata’s Snow Country.
All this talk of snow and movies reminded me ot “Cool Runnings” (?) – remember the Janaican Bobsled team?
There’s also “Love, Actually” but I think if I were to watch that now I would be teary.
I think Dr. Zhivago is the snowiest, coldest movie I can ever remember seeing. Not to mention we had to study it in high school, which really tore apart any future enjoyment of the book itself.
We watched Interstellar which was long but a nice way to soend the afternoon as the snow blew around. Outdoors was a little more hospitable than space.
“Nebraska” and “Grumpy Old Men” both make me feel like I’m back in the upper mid-west! Just COLD!
I like Smilla’s Sense of Snow. The book is excellent and the movie is pretty good. No snow here in Cali but I’m originally from Buffalo, NY so am very aware of snow in all its ways.
So glad someone mentioned Smilla’s Sense of Snow before this conversation got old. Like you, I loved the book and enjoyed the movie.
I’m fond of The Day After Tomorrow. Snow plus disaster.m
I suggest the Harry Potter movies and The Holiday.
Thanks for reminding me about “Groundhog Day”. One of my favorite movies ever.
I am surprised no one has mentioned Lilyhammer, the Netflix series where Steve van Zandt (of The Sopranos) plays a gangster who goes into the witness protection program in, of all places, Norway. Lots of laughs (and a fair bit of violence), but very well done.
McCabe and Mrs. Miller. Saddest snow scene, and best music in a Robert Altman movie.
An even better documentary about Antarctica is ‘A Year on Ice’. Also available on Netflix.
Forgot to mention the 1922 documentary Nanook of the North. Robert Flaherty spent a year filming an Inuit family. Remarkable.
Smilla’s Sense of Snow