Carole Lombard in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Had I not already been planning on attending the inaugural screening for TIFF in the Park 2012 last month, I would have very easily been drawn in regardless.
“Free Tim Hortons coffee?” said a woman in a black TIFF t-shirt right in front of David Pecaut Square. As if she needed to wait for an answer. She handed me a voucher for the coffee, along with a program for all the outdoor screenings. “This coupon is valid every Wednesday evening throughout the summer at this Tim Hortons location only,” she explained. I thanked her, and she turned to entice another passing pedestrian with the same offer. Yep, these TIFF folks sure know their audience.
Outdoor movie screenings are nothing new to Toronto, and they certainly aren’t exclusive to TIFF — who, for the remaining weeks of August, will be screening screwball comedies every Wednesday evening at sundown. Some of Toronto’s notable landmarks and locales have been turned into movie theatres for the summer months. Cult classics will be shown Tuesday evenings at Yonge-Dundas Square, and the Harbourfront Centre has a lineup of underdog films.
David Pecaut Square, located near Roy Thomson Hall, may not have the notoriety of Toronto’s busiest intersection or the romantic panache of the waterfront, but one never loses the sensation that they are in the city when watching movies there. The glowing signs on the distant BMO, TD, Scotiabank and RBC buildings are visible above the movie screen. Occasionally, the sound of the film would get interrupted by low-flying helicopters or passing sirens. At one point the smell of pot smoke filled the air. The series runs the regular risks of outdoor screenings as well; last week’s showing of His Girl Friday was cancelled fifteen minutes in because of a thunderstorm. It’s easy to get distracted while watching these movies. And yet…
Unlike the other film series, showing more recent titles or cult movies that are used to special screenings, TIFF in the Park‘s lineup comes from a completely different era. Most of the films shown, with a couple of exceptions, were released in the ’30s or ’40s, several of them being Pre-Code. They were made, one can assume, with the intention of being shown in a theatre, back when going to the theatre was still a lavish affair. They were created as escapism from economic depression, from rising political unrest. They were lavish and glamorous, albeit the type of glamour built on oppressive exclusivity, which persists to some extent today (though with much less sheen).
The ritual of going to the movies still remains with this series; the free admission just makes it that much more accessible. Most of the attendees bring blankets and picnics, laughing along with the jokes as the audience in 1942 would have. While the aforementioned distractions that come with being outside were still prevalent, there were also the accompaniments that wouldn’t have existed during their initial screenings seventy years ago. Parked on the street near the venue is an ice cream truck and a kiosk selling roti (seriously, Toronto loves its roti).
The CN Tower, visible from David Pecaut Square, glows gold every Wednesday in conjunction with the series. And, of course, there is the free coffee, provided by the ubiquitously Canadian Tim Hortons.
This backdrop of the city makes a perfect setting for movies that are cinematic without ever being too intense or heavy. Sitting in the park on a warm summer evening amongst an equally engaged crowd seems to be the best way to absorb Kay Francis and Herbert Marshall’s witty repartee in Trouble in Paradise, or Claudette Colbert coquettishly donning a stunning evening gown in The Palm Beach Story. Tonight’s pick of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith sees Carole Lombard in her penultimate role, projected on the big screen in all her platinum glory. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (not, to those scanning movie listings, to be confused with the 2005 Angelina Jolie action flick) was the only screwball comedy that Hitchcock made, as a favor to Lombard. It’s fitting, then, that his break from suspense and horror films made it onto the roster of TIFF’s summer series; after all, what else could perfectly mirror the needed break from the chaos of downtown Toronto with a foray into the comedic?
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Anna Fitzpatrick is the web editor at WORN Fashion Journal. Follow her on Twitter at @bananafitz.
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