Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979) on Netflix
PG19791h 32mComedyDramaRomance
Charles, a Salt Lake City civil servant, is fixated on Laura, a coworker who returned to her husband. He tells his sister and his friend that he plans to win her back.
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- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.0/102,326 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
At Salt Lake City's Department of Development, Charles Richardson spends his workdays drinking and mourning Laura, an administrative assistant in the filing department. A year after their brief affair ended, Laura has reunited with her husband, Jim, who sells log homes. Charles tells his younger sister, Susan, and his friend Sam that he means to win her back. Sam, unemployed and staying with Charles, worries about the fixation. Charles parks outside Laura's house and builds a miniature replica of it at home, with figurines and furniture. He also copes with his mother, Clara, who is consumed by thoughts of suicide, and his stepfather, Pete. Betty, a coworker, has stayed friends with Laura since she left the office.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- United Artists, which financed the film, offered to double its $2.5 million budget to $5 million if John Heard was replaced as the lead by John Ritter, Robin Williams or Treat Williams, but producer Mark Metcalf and fellow producers Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson turned the offer down, having always intended Heard for the part.
- Meryl Streep agreed to play Laura only if Sam Waterston was cast as Charles, so the producers, who cast the film themselves with director Joan Micklin Silver, gave the part to Mary Beth Hurt instead, since Streep would not act opposite John Heard.
- United Artists insisted the film be titled Head Over Heels rather than Chilly Scenes of Winter, calling it more commercially viable, and the film's crew signed a petition protesting the name change.
- Novelist Ann Beattie gave the producers the option on her novel on the condition that she be given a bit part in the film, and was paid $26 to appear as a waitress in a diner scene; she had no dialogue because a speaking part would have cost $225.
- Director Joan Micklin Silver said the producers had first planned to film in Albany, New York, but the local film unions' demands were economically prohibitive, so principal photography began in Salt Lake City on February 22, 1979.
