麻豆传媒映画

If you've always wanted to hear Christopher Plummer talk about Vancouver, here's your chance.

In 1962 the famed actor voiced a half-hour documentary-style film about Canadian cities, including Vancouver. Old Series Canada posted the clip on YouTube recently.

"For Vancouver, the mountains form one of the loveliest settings of any city in the world," Plummer postulates in the classiest of narrations. "And the sea provides a fine natural harbour that attracts a thriving trade."

He goes on to note much of the trade is "with the Far East" and Vancouver's trade is unique in Canada for its "feeling of closeness to the distant Orient." At the same time the film shows a very Caucasian version of the city.

Among the shots are broad skyline views from what seems to be Queen Elizabeth Park, bustling downtown streets (with all the fashion and cars of the early 60s) and many shots of the bodies of water around the area, including log drivers hard at work in what appears to be False Creek.

The 麻豆传媒映画clip is from a short film called Trans-Canada Journey; being that it was released in 1962 one may be forgiven for connecting it to the Trans-Canada Highway. However, it's actually connected to the airline Trans-Canada Air Lines. The full piece is available on the NFB's YouTube channel and is worth watching if only to listen to Plummer's voice describe stereotypical scenes across Canada in the most poetic ways possible.

"Once they were the traveller's ceiling, but now they're his carpet," he muses over shots of clouds in the intro. "High and soft; cushioned for the cry of the jet."

"Come, journey with us above these clouds," he goes on. "Come visit beneath in Canada where the farms and the towns and the cities lie beaded across the miles— 3000 miles—from one ocean to the other."