21 amazing movies set in Montreal to explore the city

For the past decade or so, Xavier Dolan has been the darling of the independent Québec cinema scene. There’s hardly a year where he’s not been seen on the red carpet at Cannes or at the helm of a new theatrical release here. His second feature film is somewhat more upbeat and less pretentious than his début or the more critically acclaimed Mommy. Heartbeats chronicles a ménage à trois between three Mile End students and artists, at once friends and lovers. If you’ve ever had a lease in a Plateau triplex, the scenes in this film will seem uncannily like daily life. Few recent films have so candidly captured what it feels like to spend a few seasons in the cultural heart of this city.

Gilles Groulx’s 1964 classic is a landmark French-Canadian film, both in terms of its topic and its cinematography. Shot in the style of French New Wave cinema, The Cat in the Bag uses the relationship between a young French-Canadian journalist and his Anglo actress girlfriend as an allegory for the nascent Québec nationalist movement. Politics aside, the movie is steeped in the cool vibes of the Sixties with pristine, impressionistic black and white streetscapes, glimmering Sainte-Catherine street neon and a soundtrack by John Coltrane. Montreal has never looked so groovy.

Québec directors have a thing for road movies, those long sprawling epics that take the protagonist from the baby carriage though adolescence to adulthood. C.R.A.Z.Y. is a fine example of that bildungsroman genre. It spans the 1960s through the 1980s, following the life of Zac, the fourth child of five in a typical middle-class French-Canadian family as he discovers his sexuality, negotiates a relationship with his rather old-fashioned father and questions his Catholic upbringing. C.R.A.Z.Y. also has a period soundtrack worthy of the best Scorcese films; scenes of Zac playing air guitar to “Space Oddity” and his father belting out Aznavour’s “Emmenez-moi” will go down in history as classic moments in Quebec film.

In 1986, Denys Arcand was the rising star of Canadian cinema. His first major success, The Decline of the American Empire was such a landmark that it inspired not one but two sequels, The Barbarian Invasions (2003) and Days of Darkness (2007). This suite of three films are, like most of Arcand’s work, dark comedies, discussing high-brow intellectual themes like the decadence of Western society and its ideals at the same time as making gutter-level humour about infidelity, mid-life crises and BDSM. Le Déclin was the first Canadian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film—Les Invasions Barbares sealed the deal and won the award. All three stand up very well today as essential Canadian cinema.

Another Dolan recommendation is Laurence Anyways. This one has the double benefit of being a period piece (set in the 80s and 90s) and dealing with transgendered identity. It tells the story of the ups and downs of an impossible romance between a woman and a man who suddenly decides to transition. The films elegant and rich cinematography has been compared to Wong Kar-Wai and the late works of Stanley Kubrick. It’s a feast for the eyes and one of the most inspiring Quebec films of the past decade.

Before private productions took over the film scene, the National Film Board was the heart and soul of Canadian cinema. Over the years, they became particularly well-known for their documentaries, winning dozens of awards. As the location of the NFB headquarters, Montreal features prominently in much of their filmography. For a glimpse into the beauty, elegance and bohemian side of post-war Montreal, check out early works like Artist in Montreal and Montreal by Night—it’s crazy how similar those days feel to today. Lovers of Montreal’s defacto poet laureate will fawn over Ladies and Gentlemen: Mr. Leornard Cohen. It’s not just the man himself that makes this one great; he lives a stylish life in an equally stylish city. For a more colourful entry, check out Impressions of Expo 67, the content of which goes without saying. Finally, Luc Bourdon’s extensive archival compilation The Memories of Angels will be mouth-watering for any Montreal history buff.

Barney’s Version may be the most polished film version of a Mordecai Richler novel to date. Based on the author’s final novel of the same title, the film features American big-shots like Paul Giamatti, Minnie Driver and Dustin Hoffman as well as other prominent Canadian talent. This quintessentially Jewish Montreal tale is a globetrotting comedy drama filmed not only here in town, but also Rome and New York City. Pay attention and you’ll recognize some of Richler’s favourite downtown haunts like Grumpy’s Bar, Ziggy’s and Winston Churchill Pub.

Denys Arcand’s dark comedy is an anti-clerical and allegorical romp through late 80s Montreal. A troupe of actors who are slated to put on a Passion Play at a Catholic pilgrimage site set out on a mission to portray the real story according to archeology and, inevitably, controversy ensues. The film was nominated for an Academy Award, but it’s the atmosphere that will inspire modern-day Montrealers: Artists’ lofts, the Downtown skyline, Mount Royal Park and the then-recently-built Saint-Henri metro station feature dramatically in this hilarious cinematic masterpiece.

Here’s one for our food readers: a two-hour telefilm about a real-life Montreal diner. Le Matou, based on the novel of the same name by Yves Beauchemin, tells the story of a couple who dream of owning a restaurant. This movie’s not just a foodie flic though: it’s a wild ride with a six-year-old alcoholic street urchin, a mysterious former Nazi spy and gangsterism worthy of an epic thriller. The best part is that La Binerie, the setting of the film, is still serving iconic Montreal food of Québecois tourtière to this day.

If you’re looking for a light-hearted comedy, Émile Gaudreault’s somewhat soapy 2003 film Mambo Italiano, which tells the story of a young Italian-Canadian who comes out as gay to his conservative parents, is a good bet.  Not only does this movie focus in on typically Montreal situations with bilingual, trilingual and accented banter, but it also strikes a chord with two topics essential to our city: Immigration and sexual diversity.  It has a surprisingly star-studded cast, including mob movie regular Paul Sorvino in the role of the perpetually outraged Italian father.

Nostalgia is a recurring theme in our list— what can we say, perhaps Montrealers have a strong sense of their history? Funkytown brings us back to the birth of Montreal’s downtown disco craze in the early 1970s (it’s a little-known fact that Montreal had French-inspired discothèques before New York did), starring the “king of Canadian disco” with a pad in Habitat ’67. Nightclubs, gangsters and, of course, the music of the day set the tone against a backdrop of the Summer Olympics and political upheaval. It’s also a rare recent example of a primarily Anglophone film made and set in Montreal. You’ll have a hard time sitting still after watching this one.

It may not have A-level production values, but the 1974 movie version of the Mordecai Richler novel that every Anglo-Canadian read for high school English class is as warm and comforting as a Wilensky’s special with an egg-cream on the side. It was the most commercially successful Canadian film ever when released, but more importantly, it’s faithful to the book and has beautiful colour shots of mid-1970s Mile End. While you should read Richler’s original novel eventually, you can probably stream the film online to finish that book report for now.

The Score occupies an interesting spot on our list. This 2001 heist movie starring Richard de Niro, Edward Norton, Angela Bassett and Marlon Brando is an entirely American production filmed and set entirely chez nous. De Niro’s character is a lifelong gangster brought out of his peaceful Plateau triplex retirement to pull one last job at the Montreal Customs House in the Old Port. Few Hollywood blockbusters have embraced this town so thoroughly.

The movie is by no means a masterpiece, but it is certainly a rare gem of sorts. Intent to Kill is a 1958 Hollywood film noir filmed entirely on location in Montreal. Director Jack Cardiff was at the helm of this thriller about a British doctor treating a patient being pursued by gangsters at a Montreal hospital. Our timeless city, covered by a thick sheet of snow (of course) provides the perfect, moody backdrop for the film. See if you can identify the streetscapes over a half-century on.

Wait Until Dark barely counts as a Montreal film—only a few scenes take place in our fair city—but even if the characters in this Terrence Young thriller are only passing through, it’s a testimony to that brief Expo 1967 moment when Montreal was the center of the universe. Plus, it stars Audrey Hepburn playing a blind woman conned into becoming an unwitting drug mule. The final scenes of the film have often been rated among the most terrifying moments in motion picture history.