Araks - Leisurely Pursuits ~ A high summer watchlist for the vacations we don'

There are summer people and then there are those who never open the curtains.

This watchlist is for them, for the heat of high summer that makes you want to lie very still in front of something blue, or with your face to the fan in the dark. Off we go:

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou — a fictional oceanographer, a submarine, a candy-colored expedition ship. You've likely already seen it, but it's worth an encore for the soundtrack alone.
Stromboli — Bergman against black volcanic sand. Stark and elemental.
Le Rayon Vert (The Green Ray) — Biarritz, then Saint-Jean-de-Luz, then the Alps, chasing a sunset phenomenon that may or may not exist.
Chungking Express — not a beach film, but the most humid one we know. Neon, sweat, longing.
Le Grand Bleu (The Big Blue) — ninety minutes of deep blue ocean.
L'Avventura — existential drift, sun-blasted volcanic rock.
Fruit of Paradise — a surreal Eden of a garden, Chytilová's camera drunk on red and green.

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The Talented Mr. Ripley — linen, jazz clubs, moral collapse on the Amalfi coast.
Y Tu Mamá También — the Oaxaca coast, dusty and unglamorous.
Swimming Pool — a Provence retreat that turns strange fast.
Aftersun — a Turkish resort, a father and daughter, and a soundtrack that will unravel you.
Respiro — Lampedusa, sun-bleached and half-feral, a woman the whole island thinks is losing her mind.
A Bigger Splash — Pantelleria, volcanic. Watch with the fan off if you're feeling committed.
Le Mépris (Contempt) — Capri, by way of the Casa Malaparte. Bardot on a rooftop.
Boom! — a private island off Sardinia, Elizabeth Taylor in couture caftans, a swan in the bathtub.