With a few notable exceptions, film releases in July and August tend to be Hollywood blockbusters rather than future classics—which makes it the perfect season to catch up on the best summer films ever made. Of course, there are all-time favorites, like Audrey Hepburn’s cinematic debut in Roman Holiday and Marilyn Monroe’s turn as a Prohibition-era ukulele player in Some Like It Hot. Just as good for whiling away a summer’s day, however, are cult hits, from Almost Famous (starring a curly haired, effervescent Kate Hudson) to Elle Fanning’s role as a Prada-clad 11-year-old who takes up residence in the Chateau Marmont in Somewhere. Read on for Vogue’s guide to the best summer films to watch now—featuring plenty of holiday wardrobe inspiration.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection1/13The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
Tom Ripley’s murderous streak aside, the Hollywood adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1950s-set novel features scene after scene of genetically blessed, phenomenally wealthy 20-somethings sunning themselves on the Sicilian coast, hosting dinner parties in geranium-filled courtyards, and sailing in the crystal blue Mediterranean. It also happens to be a veritable masterclass in holiday style.
Photo: Shutterstock2/13Mektoub My Love (2017)
With a runtime of more than three hours, Mektoub My Love is the cinematic equivalent of an endless summer. At the heart of the film is a quiet medical student Amin (Shaïn Boumedine) who returns to his home in the Mediterranean port of Sète, where he and his much wilder cousin Tony begin a series of affairs. Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche, it features the same hypnotic, almost voyeuristic cinematography as Blue Is the Warmest Colour, along with plenty of throwbacks to hedonist 1990s culture.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection3/13Roman Holiday (1953)
It’s practically a moral requirement to include an Audrey Hepburn hit in any list of classic films. Shot in and around Rome, this romance stars Hepburn as Princess Ann, who runs away during a state visit to the Italian capital to experience la dolce vita on her own terms. Her welcoming guide? A reporter for the American News Service, Joe, played by Gregory Peck at his most charming. In case you ever wondered where the stereotype of tourists zipping around Italy on a Vespa comes from, here’s your answer.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection4/13Out of Africa (1985)
Set in eastern Africa at the turn of the 20th century, virtually every frame of Sydney Pollack’s adaptation of Isak Dinesen’s bestselling memoir is stunning. Meryl Streep does her best Danish accent in the starring role while clad in enviable linen suits and belted safari jackets—while Robert Redford takes a turn as a game hunter and amateur pilot. Even more notable than their romantic chemistry? The film’s dramatic aerial reviews of the breathtaking landscape in and around the Great Rift Valley.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection5/13Y Tu Mamá También (2001)
Before his masterful Roma, Alfonso Cuarón paid tribute to his native Mexico with the coming-of-age story Y Tu Mamá También. Set during the country’s rise of right-wing populism at the turn of the millennium, the drama follows a pair of teenage boys, Julio and Tenoch, on an impromptu road trip through the Mexican countryside with the wife of Tenoch’s cousin Luisa—searching for an illusory beach known as Boca del Cielo, or the Mouth of Heaven. Cue both boys falling for her—and the most complicated summer romance imaginable.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection6/13Call Me By Your Name (2017)
No one does a holiday film quite like Luca Guadagnino. Case in point: A Bigger Splash, his 2015 reimagining of La Piscine, starring Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, and Dakota Johnson, and named after a David Hockney painting. For a romantic Italian backdrop, however, turn to Call Me By Your Name (2017), shot in northern Lombardy near the Swiss border. The 16th-century Villa Albergoni in Moscazzano, where the majority of the scenes take place, might just be the most envy-inducing home on film.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection7/13Dirty Dancing (1987)
Nobody puts Baby in a corner. Dirty Dancing is a masterpiece of 1980s cinema, right down to the excessive hip gyrations. Set over a summer in a high-end travel resort in the Catskills, it stars Jennifer Grey as Frances “Baby” Houseman, a teenager whose holiday goes awry when she meets Patrick Swayze in a leotard, AKA dance instructor Johnny Castle. Just try to resist the urge to practice the lift once the film is over.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection8/13Before Sunrise (1995)
“I have an admittedly insane idea, but if I don’t ask it, it’s just going to haunt me the rest of my life...” In Richard Linklater’s follow-up to Dazed and Confused, Ethan Hawke plays an American tourist backpacking around Europe for the summer, while Julie Delpy appears as Céline, a beautiful French girl traveling back to Paris after visiting her grandmother. After impulsively getting off the Eurail in Vienna, the two spend a life-changing 24 hours together, beginning the holiday romance to end all holiday romances. You’re going to start planning a trip to Austria as soon as the credits roll.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection9/13Almost Famous (2000)
Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film is a paean to the golden age of rock ’n’ roll—and a poignant study of a love triangle between the reckless, self-centered frontman of band-on-the-rise Stillwater (Billy Crudup); the dreamy, enigmatic groupie Penny Lane (Kate Hudson); and a wide-eyed teenage reporter for Rolling Stone (Patrick Fugit). It’s worth watching for Frances McDormand’s turn as a concerned mother alone—and her delivery of the iconic line, “My son has been kidnapped by rock stars!”
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection10/13Somewhere (2010)
The Chateau Marmont has never looked better than in Sofia Coppola’s understated 2010 drama, about a famous Hollywood actor (Stephen Dorff) whose hedonistic lifestyle is compromised when his 11-year-old daughter Cleo (Elle Fanning) appears in his hotel suite. Cue the two of them driving around Los Angeles in a Ferrari, going wild in a lavish Milan suite during a press tour, and bonding over a shared love of Guitar Hero while poolside. Keep an eye out for Fanning in a Prada dress that Coppola bought for herself while traveling in Italy as a girl.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection11/13La Piscine (1969)
There is no better premise for a summer film than sexual intrigue on the Côte d’Azur, especially when that film involves Romy Schneider in diaphanous silk blouses and Jane Birkin in prim gingham two-pieces—all designed by André Courrèges. Even when the dramatic tension in La Piscine is at its peak, the mood of the film is still somehow languorous and glamorous all at once.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection12/13Some Like It Hot (1959)
In Billy Wilder’s comic masterpiece, saxophonist Joe (Tony Curtis) and double bass player Jerry (Jack Lemmon) assume drag to hide from a 1920s Chicago gang, joining an all-female band, Sweet Sue and Her Society Syncopators, on a trip to Miami. Enter Marilyn Monroe, the group’s ukulele player, who’s determined to find herself an older Florida millionaire at the beach. Prohibition never looked so good.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection13/13Easy Rider (1969)
Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider epitomized the American counterculture of the late 1960s. Even Joan Didion weighed in on its success in The White Album. Peter Fonda and Hopper star as rootless motorcyclists Wyatt and Billy, who decide to ride their Harley-Davidsons to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Joining them on their Transatlantic road trip? Jack Nicholson in his first major role as the “square” lawyer George. It’s worth watching to listen to his Texan accent alone.
