Winter Kept Us Warm

1965
1h 21m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

It's the 1960s at the University of Toronto. Doug is a well-liked senior with an equally popular girlfriend. Peter is a shy freshman, and new to the big city. Peter and Doug become best frie... Read allIt's the 1960s at the University of Toronto. Doug is a well-liked senior with an equally popular girlfriend. Peter is a shy freshman, and new to the big city. Peter and Doug become best friends and soon start going to concerts, drinking, and playing in the snow together. When Dou... Read allIt's the 1960s at the University of Toronto. Doug is a well-liked senior with an equally popular girlfriend. Peter is a shy freshman, and new to the big city. Peter and Doug become best friends and soon start going to concerts, drinking, and playing in the snow together. When Doug brings Peter to a steam bath and washes his back, the friendship seems headed to a whole... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.9/10

217

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Photos1

Top cast15

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John Labow

Doug

Henry Tarvainen

Peter

Joy Fielding

Bev
(as Joy Tepperman)

Janet Amos

Sandra

Iain Ewing

Artie
(as Ian Ewing)

Jack Messinger

Nick

Larry Greenspan

Larry

Sol Mandlsohn

Hall Porter

Men of Sir Daniel Wilson Residence

George Appleby

House Don
(uncredited)

Director
- David Secter
Writers
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews4

6.9217

Featured reviews

8hausrathman

Ground breaking Film

This ambitious student feature, shot at the University of Toronto, holds an important place in the history of independent Canadian film making. It was the first Canadian film to be invited to the Cannes film festival. It is also an important early film touching the subject of homosexuality.

4geburkowski

Amateur Effort

This film was shot at Sir Daniel Wilson Residence at the University of Toronto with a cast of amateur actors. I was at Sir Dan's at the time: most of us trooped out to see it later in the year - and were rewarded with a couple of nude scenes that were mildly titillating then and would be positively tepid today. The movie is being flagged under headings like "gay interest" and "shower scene" - and it's noted that it was screened at Cannes. For all these reasons, it may have a modest degree of sociological/political/cultural interest. But be in no doubt: this is an amateur effort. I found the script painfully naive when I viewed the film 40 years ago - and it must be a profound embarrassment today. Not worth your time unless you're into the history of Canadian cinema.

8mrdonleone

Homosexual Encounters in a boring Picture which fascinates more by the Sight

It's a very interesting movie. The story is not good at all and the screenplay seems to be written by a 5 years old; but the cinematography is beautiful and artistic value of the movie for extenze the lower qualities of the storytelling. I'm talking I'm talking I'm talking here. There is a sort of homosexual arousing that's in the movie which is not so interesting ain't that the same time that fascinates has a team of the movie but it's more about teenagers all together seeing what they can do unless they make a mess out of their lives. Bravo for artistic value here; I see a few times more intensively than I did not for the first time. Definitely.

5filmreviewradical

A relationship drama with a difference

At the University of Toronto new student Peter develops a 'relationship' with student Doug. Considered something of a milestone of English language Canadian cinema writer/producer/director David Sector's 1965 feature film is a relationship drama with a difference. The difference is, that although Sector had to tread carefully, this is a thinly disguised tale of gay love. Along with it being the first English language Canadian film screened at Cannes this is the main reason it occupies a place in Canadian film history, although as a film it's neither particularly good or particularly bad. It does seem a bit amateurish in places, with poor sound quality, and doesn't match Canadian films of the same period such as Don Owen's 'Nobody Waved Goodbye'.

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Trivia
[Director David Cronenberg on the influence Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) had on his career:] "I can't say the 'University of Toronto' led me to horror, but what it did do was lead me to cinema, though I never studied cinema. There was a student called David Secter who was making a movie called Winter Kept Us Warm (1965), which starred some friends of mine. And it never occurred to me that you could make a movie. It was unlike someone growing up in LA where everybody's parents were in the business. In Toronto, no one's parents were in the movie business because there wasn't a movie business.(...) The number of films I've seen that have impressed me is endless. But actually, Winter Kept Us Warm (1965) is the most influential film of my life in a weird way. It wasn't a horror film - it was a drama about students coping with life at the 'University of Toronto' - and it wasn't because of its artistry. It was just the fact it was made. It's hard to reproduce the shock I felt when I saw my classmates on screen in a real movie, acting. It was like magic: you are watching TV and suddenly you are in the TV, acting in some TV series. It was that kind of shock." ('The Guardian' 14th Sept. 2014)