The cold descends: movies about winter

Living in Texas means never having to be very cold — I can’t remember the last time I really needed to button up my coat or wear a hat. But every once in a while an arctic blast makes its way down the plains and hammers us. This is a problem for those of us who live in houses only designed to stay cool in the summer — and which now feel like Joel and Clementine’s bed in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, dusted with snow and battered by winds. When the wind began to blow in the middle of night on Monday, it was so loud inside my thin-walled little house that it woke me up.

What does this mean for Feminéma? Foremost that I now watch movies late at night covered with a down comforter that is, in fact, so comforting that I risk nodding off. So I’m looking for something that makes the cold into a major theme. It’s too bad I’ve already seen the great Swedish film Let the Right One In, and I’ve promised to wait till the weekend to see the American remake Let Me In. And I’ve already seen the usual snowy suspects — The Shining, A Simple Plan, Groundhog Day, Fargo, The Sweet Hereafter, The Ice Storm, and Affliction. This is clearly one of those viewing moments that requires a Korean, Russian, or Scandinavian film by people who understand the cold. More soon.