1 | The Fly
David Cronenberg (whose film A Dangerous Method will be at TIFF this year) has made more than a dozen films here in the GTA and says, “I love shooting in Toronto.” Mega-city references abound in his films. Even though The Fly is set in an unspecified city, check out its use of Beck taxis and Kensington Market.
2 | Videodrome
Film critic Geoff Pevere says, “Toronto had never seemed weirder” than in Cronenberg’s epic Videodrome. This story of a sleazy UHF television station programmer who becomes spellbound by the hallucinatory power of porn movies is set in Toronto, and it not only used many of the city’s locations, but its unique references as well. Civic TV allegedly refers to Citytv, which, in its early days used to air soft-core pornography late at night.
3 | Last Night
Don McKellar based Last Night, his directorial debut, in Toronto in the remaining six hours before the end of the world. Not only does McKellar utilize T.O. locations like the Mowat Block offices at 900 Bay Street and Weston Medical on Lawrence, but he also showcased a who’s who of Hogtown actors like Sarah Polley, Arsinée Khanjian and even David Cronenberg in a rare appearance in front of the camera.
4 | Childstar
In Childstar, the story of a precocious American kid actor on the lam in Canada, McKellar set scenes at Fran’s and takes a trip to Pioneer Village. “Part of the fun of the movie was watching how Toronto doubles for whatever random American city it needs to,” says co-writer Michael Goldbach. “In this case, its chameleon quality is part of its appeal. But beneath the it-sort-of-looks-like-New-York veneer, there is Toronto itself, which is infinitely more complicated and interesting than some people would have you believe.”
5 | Chloe
In Egoyan’s film Chloe, Amanda Seyfried plays an escort hired by Catherine (Julianne Moore) to test her husband’s (Liam Neeson) fidelity. “At the level of metaphor, it’s interesting because Toronto is a prostitute. As a city, very often it pretends to be New York or Chicago,” Egoyan said. “So it’s interesting since this is a film about that.” The director calls the scenes set at Café Diplomatico “the most thrilling for Torontonians” because it looks “so spectacular.”
6 | Camilla
Deepa Mehta has frequently used Toronto as scenery for her stories. In Camilla, two expatriate Canadians, Bridget Fonda and Jessica Tandy, in one of her last roles, drive across the U.S. to attend a concert in T.O.
7 | Bollywood/Hollywood
Mehta calls her joyful celebration of the city’s “world within a city” status, Bollywood/Hollywood, “very particular to Toronto. I think that has a lot to do with our immigration policy, multiculturalism and the way it is viewed.”
8 | Heaven On Earth
Mehta’s exploration of domestic abuse, Heaven on Earth, was also set in the GTA. “Heaven on Earth is set in Toronto for a particular reason,” says Mehta, “because it reflects our immigration policies and also what happens to new immigrants, specifically women, when they come here from small villages and find that they are without any safety net or family or friends.”
9 | Scott Pilgrim
The opening credits of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World read, “Not so long ago … in the mysterious land … of Toronto, Canada …” and the movie used local landmarks as well as side streets like Alberta Avenue where author Bryan Lee O’Malley lived when he wrote the graphic novel. “I hope our film at least did a service to this city, showing it as itself,” says director Edgar Wright.
10 | This Movie Is Broken
In collaboration with Bruce McDonald, McKellar came up with the idea for This Movie Is Broken; part love story, part Broken Social Scene rockumentary set at a July 2009 show at Harbourfront. “We wanted to make it about that day in Toronto,” McKellar says, “the temperature and the sounds.” Add to that the settings: Trinity Bellwoods Park, The Drake Hotel and Christie Pits.
11 | The Strip
Related in theme is a look at the down-and-dirty Yonge Street strip, once the body-rub capital of Canada, in Ron Mann’s 1974 Super 8 documentary The Strip. “To escape the humdrum suburbs,” Mann says, “I would head downtown on weekends to walk the strip below Bloor Street … In 1972, the time of making the film, massage parlours and peep shows began to appear — that gave a brand new meaning to ‘the strip.’”
12 | Goin’ Down The Road
For many people, the first on screen glimpse of Toronto came from the back seat of a 1960 Chevrolet Impala. Goin’ Down the Road, the story of Pete (Doug McGrath) and his pal Joey (Paul Bradley), two Maritimers who set out in a Chevy to find a better life in Toronto, is a city time capsule, circa 1970. Look for great shots of Yonge Street attractions, including the classic Sam the Record Man neon sign.
13 | The Mask
The Mask, 1961, is not only the first Canadian horror film, the first Canuck 3D film and the first Great White North picture to be widely released by a major studio in the United States, but it also contains great shots of the city when Nathan Phillips was the name of the mayor and not a square.
14 | The Silent Partner
Also vintage is The Silent Partner, a Christmas-themed heist film starring not only Elliott Gould, Susannah York and Christopher Plummer in a Chanel dress, but the Toronto Eaton Centre, the CN Tower and lots of Canadian flags.
15 | Frankenstein On Campus
U of T has been a popular shooting spot over the years, usually subbing for Harvard or Yale. In Frankenstein on Campus, Robin Ward plays hippie Victor Frankenstein, who, while enrolled at U of T, conducts some very psychedelic experiments. The movie features appearances by T.O. rock band Lighthouse, Howard Shore and Philosopher’s Walk.
16 | I’ve Heard The Mermaids Singing
I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing plays like a fuzzy dream of 1980s Toronto. Patricia Rozema’s 1987 comedy (winner of the coveted Prix de la Jeunesse at Cannes) about Toronto’s art world sees main character Polly (Sheila McCarthy) bicycling through downtown streets, photographing the people she meets along the way. Its fantasy-laden look at the city earned it a place on a list of Canada’s 10 best films ever as chosen by 100 international critics.
17 | The Hurricane
These movies preserve the history of the city, capturing moments in time. For proof, look to Norman Jewison’s The Hurricane, about boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter’s campaign to clear his name of a murder charge, for more blasts from the past, a gift box from the now bankrupt Eaton’s and the now condo-ized Molson Brewery on Fleet Street.
18 | Masala
Other tales of the city also capture the many tones of life in the Big Smoke. In 2002, voters named Masala, Srinivas Krishna’s look at terrorism, food and growing up in early 1990s Toronto, as their favourite South Asian film in a British Film Institute poll.
19 | Lost Journey
The immigrant experience, so important to the fabric of Canadian life, is explored in Lost Journey, a 2010 film about a teenager, who according to director Ant Horasanli, “comes to Toronto from Iran for a better life and gets caught up in the Toronto night and party life.” Horasanli auditioned over 200 Persian and English GTA actors.
20 | Monkey Warfare
Actress Nadia Litz says shooting movies on the city streets can be dangerous, particularly on a bicycle. In the Parkdale–set Monkey Warfare, she plays a bike-riding weed dealer opposite Don McKellar and Tracy Wright. During shooting, she had an “accident shooting a scene on Jarvis … Got caught in streetcar tracks, nearly run over by a car.”
21 | The Five Senses
Litz also mentions another great Hollywood North flick, The Five Senses, director Jeremy Podeswa’s portmanteau about people who are losing their ability to hear, see, touch, smell and taste. “The first scene I shot in a feature film was done in Trinity Bellwoods (which I live across from now.…).”
22 | Take This Waltz
Those attending the gala screening of Sarah Polley’s new film, Take This Waltz, at TIFF this year will see more than just a finely crafted look at the ups and downs of modern love. They’ll also get an adoring glimpse at their city. According to the film’s press kit, Polley set the movie in her hometown and “proudly admits that she romanticizes the city and wanted to show her affection for the tree-lined streets and downtown residential areas.”
23 | Lie With Me
Clément Virgo calls his 2005 erotic exploration of adult sexuality, Lie with Me, “a love letter to the city.” The only thing more explicit than the movie’s sex scenes is the film’s obvious affection for its Annex location.
24 | Exotica
The Oscar-nominated Atom Egoyan, too, has frequently used T-Dot as a backdrop for his films. His first commercial success, Exotica, was set in a Toronto strip club. The setting was important to Egoyan because, “first and foremost, it’s where I live,” he says. “There was also a specific quality to the strip culture in the city in the mid-’90s.”
25 | Hollywood North
Finally, no wrap up of “Trawna” movies could be complete without Hollywood North, a mockumentary look at the 1970s tax dodge years of Canadian film. How Toronto-centric is this movie? All the locations are in place, and there is a plot twist that relies on the weather. The movie-within-the-movie, warm-weather action epic Flight to Bogota, is delayed when a freak August snowstorm shuts down production. Nothing says Toronto like extreme weather.
