By Lexie Dykes

The arrival of Spring has been decidedly rainy in St Andrews but never fear: here are five summery films to get you feeling warm and sunny.

1. A Room With a View (1986)

An adaptation of one of E. M. Forster’s more cheerful novels, we follow Lucy Honeychurch (adorable name) on a trip to Florence and watch the love story that ensues back in England on the fittingly named ‘Summer Street’. This story is wonderfully sweet and romantic with gorgeous Edwardian costume design, a magical score by Richard Robbins featuring Puccini’s classic ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’, and the chance to watch a young Helena Bonham Carter wander over wide shots of Italian countryside and lounge the summer away in an English country garden. The performances from the stacked cast featuring Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Day-Lewis are brilliantly comedic, and Julian Sands’ and Rupert Graves’ floppy curtains are about as preppy as it gets. If you like Call Me By Your Name, you’ll like this film: director James Ivory co-wrote the 2017 hit’s screenplay. Call Me By Your Name is sufficiently more melancholicbut Mr Emerson’s final speech convincing Lucy to confront her denial of her passion for his son is remarkably similar to the monologue that Elio’s father gives him about love. They are arguably both films’ most moving and sensitive moments. As characters bike around villages, wander through Renaissance churches and bathe in idyllic lakes, this is Merchant-Ivory at its most pleasant, balmy and glorious.

2. To Catch a Thief (1955)

Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief is a thriller mixing heist-style robbery and concealed identity narratives with romance. Almost 70 years on, this movie remains a gripping and enjoyable watch and the costume design by Edith Head (i.e. the real Edna Mode) is alone reason enough to watch this. All the clichés of this film are pure fun: it features as a romantic scene accompanied by fireworks that I can only imagine the 2011 Monte Carlo aspired to, Cary Grant dressed in Pizza Express-style stripes with a camp necktie (because he is on the Mediterranean?!) and the robberies by John “The Cat” Robie expressed through an opening montage of a black cat seductively clambering around rooftops. I mean, who doesn’t love to watch a girl recklessly driving her man in a convertible along cliffside roads on the French Riviera? In the words of High School Musical 2, this film is summer, summer, summer.

3. Atonement (2007)

Third up is Joe Wright’s Atonement, based on Ian McEwan’s novel. A World War II romantic drama spanning 60 years, this film follows Briony, a “13 year old Saoirse Ronan [who] was robbed of that Oscar for her performance as THE DEVIL” (my favourite Letterboxd review of all time), and the love story between her sister Cecilia and the gardener Robbie. The 1930s segment of this film is a lush and intensely seductive depiction of summer in Sussex. The cameras were covered with Dior stockings, creating a hazy tone throughout that is warm and highly dreamy. If you have ever had a hot summer in the countryside, this part of the film is seriously evocative and romantic. As everyone gets literally hot and bothered, a sexy (but ultimately tragic) drama ensues exploring guilt, morality and innocence versus experience. With a dapper James McAvoy and a gorgeous Keira Knightly, the close summer prompts Robbie to drop the flirtiest line of all time: ‘I feel rather foolish and lightheaded in your presence and I don’t think I can blame the heat’. *Swoon*. But then turn this movie off. Immediately. The second half of this film is beyond depressing and will not make you yearn for summer on the white cliffs of Blighty but will have you reaching for the tissues.

4. The Philadelphia Story (1940)

The Philadelphia Story is a perfect summer rom-com. When I first watched this I was surprised by how funny it was, with very witty, dry and fast-paced dialogue. (It makes sense that it was originally a play). It has a brilliant cast, featuring Katherine Hepburn playing the socialite Tracy Lord divorced from Cary Grant’s Dexter, alongside Jimmy Stewart playing the journalist Mike visiting to cover her impending marriage to George Kittredge, played by John Howard. They all have crazy chemistry, making the flirting-filled scenes total fun to watch. The story takes place on a gorgeous, all-American estate and is probably one of the first examples of the “run-up to the wedding” rom-com. If you want to watch a musical version of this story, High Society of 1956 with Frank Sinatra, Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby and Louis Armstrong is also summery fun (not as high-brow but more lovey-dovey and sentimental). The black-and-white filming allows the strong contours of summer light and shadow to come through, and with hilarious scenes of drunkenness, hangovers, light-hearted affairs and lots of swimming, this film feels like one big holiday.

5. La Collectionneuse (1967)

Lastly is La Collectionneuse, a French film directed by Éric Rohmer. This is a comedy-drama about three characters idling the summer away reading and swimming in a mansion on the Riviera. We follow Adrien, played by Patrick Bauchau, and his internal monologuing on romantic morality, intellectualism and, mostly, his judgements toward the enigmatic and alluring Haydée played by Haydée Politoff. Haydée, despite being tormented by Adrien and his friend Daniel and demeaned by most as a ‘a collector of men’, tends to totally ignore them much to Adrien’s irritation. When I watched this with my friend, we both exclaimed that we aspire to be at her level of unbothered. This is a film about the male gaze; it is a criticism of masculine self-righteousness and an exploration into female sexuality. Apart from the escalation of the plot towards the end of the film, character work does the heavy lifting, as well as blocking and cinematography. Capturing tense relationships, and warm, direct and diffused light, there is a sense of quietness and charged serenity to this summer holiday. In fact, there is no music at all, just cicadas and sparse dialogue. However I can sort of smell their summer instead - cigarettes, salt-water, sun cream and coffee. The set and costume design are also noteworthy; if I could buy a whole new summer wardrobe and a seventeenth century villa, La Collectionneuse would be my mood board.