Category Archives: Montréal on Film

A pleasant trip down memory lane – Expo Express

I have no idea who put this together, but good job anyways. The Expo Express was a surface rapid transit system developed for use at Expo 67, connecting the Centre d’Acceuil at the Cité du Havre with a line connecting to all points at the fairgrounds. Curiously, it was never connected to the Métro station on Ile-Ste-Helene, though this perhaps indicates that the line was never meant to be a part of the larger traffic system.

It ran between 1967 and 1972 then was dismantled. You can still see the bridge which runs from Ile-Notre-Dame towards La Ronde, and Place des Nations would have once been directly connected to the system.

Consider, during Expo there was a fully-operational Métro, elevated rail, mini rail, tethered gondola and ferries – not to mention bridge and road access to the Expo site from effectively all directions. It makes me wonder if this wasn’t supposed to be an indication of the way to come – total shared public transit saturation.

Unknown photograph – anyone know who took this?

Ola amigos –

In transferring files a little while back I stumbled upon this gem of a picture. I can’t remember who sent it to me, but I’d love to know so I can blow this up into a poster!

Neat eh?

A Saucerful of Secrets – Montréal on Film

I came across this video of Montréal in the 60s set to the music of Pink Floyd on the NFB’s blog. It seems to be mostly NFB stock footage and I know I’ve seen some of this in Luc Bourdon’s 2008 Masterpiece, La mémoire des anges. Apparently, it originated on a blog called Montreal State of Mind.

Enjoy – it’s trippy and its what we used to look like. Watching vids like these remind me of why Montréal really is a fantastic place to shoot films.