Directed and Edited by Kier-La Janisse
Canada 2024, 17 mins
Made for Arrow Video’s blu ray of THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK
I discuss the Vancouver locations of Robert Altman’s THAT COLD DAY IN THE PARK, the first of his “feminine quartet” which also included THREE WOMEN, IMAGES and COME BACK TO THE FIVE AND DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN. While many of the locations have since been demolished, with the help of the city archives, the input of local historians and even venerated CBC DJ David Wisdom (who lived in one of the houses in the film at the time of filming) I was able to place the film at an important moment in the transformation of the city and in the development of Vancouver’s then-nascent film industry. Most importantly I comment on the connection between locations in this film and the constructed frontier village of his later film McCABE AND MRS. MILLER, which was built by the residents of a squatter community from the mudflats of Vancouver’s north shore while they were in a very public battle with the city that ended tragically.
