Made for only 8,000 Canadian dollars by a 22-year-old director, Winter Kept Us Warm<\/em> sticks to campus life, except for a few scenes at Toronto\u2019s nightclubs and streets. Many scenes play out without dialogue, as the dancing vibraphones of Paul Hoffert\u2019s score plays out over the images. The new 4K restoration looks crystal-clear, but the soundtrack remains muddy in places. Still, the film\u2019s modest scale and meat-and-potatoes sensibility were a perfect fit for the resources with which it was made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Winter Kept Us Warm<\/em>\u2019s current run at the Metrograph isn\u2019t its first exposure in the U.S. It was released here back in 1968, reviewed<\/a> in the New York Times<\/em> by Renata Adler. It\u2019s gone through several revivals, including a DVD release from TLA Video. Still, it remains quite obscure, even though David Cronenberg singled it out as an inspiration for his own early films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The two protagonists\u2019 personalities contrast with each other. Peter (Henry Tarvainen) arrives in Toronto from the sticks. Exiting a train station into the streets, he gazes up at a skyscraper, framed to loom as menacingly as possible. Taking a cab to his dorm, he settles in. While working as a waiter in a men\u2019s cafeteria, he\u2019s teased by a group of boys, including Doug (John Labow). Even their physical appearance marks their differences: Doug appears to be several years older, dark-haired and conventionally handsome, his voice and mannerisms outgoing and confident; Peter is blonde and far more shy. The two become friends and start spending most of their free time together. While both date women, everyone can perceive the tension looming around their relationship. Doug\u2019s girlfriend tells him \u201ceverything was fine until you met Peter.\u201d Despite the choice to begin with Peter, this turns into Doug\u2019s story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Winter Kept Us Warm<\/em> documents a pre-countercultural period of the 1960s. Although Peter plans to go to an anti-Vietnam War protest, Canada\u2019s involvement in the war isn\u2019t a pressing issue. (Doug still warns him away, fearing future blacklisting.) Doug and Peter go to a Harry Belafonte concert and play acoustic guitar, but the film never utilizes rock music. Everyone\u2019s hair is short, and their style of dress is fairly formal. Peter takes a chance by smoking a cigarette on a date, not a joint. A tweedy Anglophilia dominates campus life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Extremely tame by today\u2019s standards, Winter Kept Us Warm<\/em> nonetheless includes a nude shot of a man\u2019s ass that wouldn\u2019t have passed the Hays Code. Secter uses visual language to suggest gay desire. Doug and Peter head to the sauna together. A whole locker room of male students strips down to towels, barely concealing their bodies. These scenes reveal their growing attraction, despite the fact that they\u2019re not alone during them. Indeed, they\u2019re able to get affectionate in the shower without anyone else noticing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although Winter Kept Us Warm<\/em> doesn\u2019t ignore homophobia, its presence is kept as small as possible. At a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Canada, this feels quietly radical. Even so, it\u2019s the film\u2019s structuring absence. Doug and Peter\u2019s relationships with women are poisoned by an undertone that every character strains to fully acknowledge. When Doug has to present himself as heterosexual and can\u2019t speak about his actual desires, he\u2019s bound to end up hurting his girlfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Secter was inspired by his own experiences. According to Matthew Hays\u2019 DVD review in Cineaste<\/em><\/a>, Doug was based upon himself, following a bout of unrequited love for another student. In 2024, Chris Dupuis wrote<\/a> \u201cdespite its initial success, the film had very nearly vanished from our cultural consciousness a decade after it was made.\u201d (Dupuis published a book about Winter Kept Us Warm<\/em> that year.) Secter did not go on to a thriving career. While he was able to follow Winter Kept Us Warm<\/em> up with The Offering<\/em> in 1966, further job prospects dwindled. (Not a single person has reviewed The Offering<\/em> on Letterboxd.) He moved to New York, joined a commune and directed theater. Subsequent films are scarce: to this day, he\u2019s only made six, one being porn. (His last was the 2005 documentary Take The Flame! Gay Games: Grace, Grit and Glory<\/em>.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Were Winter Kept Us Warm<\/em> about two heterosexual college students who fall in love, his career trajectory would\u2019ve been far different. As soft-spoken as the film is, it was open enough for homophobes to catch what it\u2019s really about. This new restoration should allow us to finally appreciate Secter\u2019s innovations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The new 4K restoration of “Winter Kept Us Warm” opens Saturday at the Metrograph in New York<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/winter2.jpg\")
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