Coffee cameos: our top caffeinated films

As the London Coffee Festival hits our home city this week, the Khoollect team has got one drink on the brain. And we haven’t limited ourselves to just drinking coffee … we’re chatting about it, making it and watching it too.

For those interested in learning more about the production, consumption and pleasures of coffee, A Film About Coffee is the perfect place to start. This beautifully captured film explores all things coffee, across the globe, and will have you reaching for a cup with haste. You can see the trailer here.

The list of coffee cameos in films is longer than any actor’s filmography on IMDB, but if you’re partial to a perk-up from this bitter brew, you’ll probably enjoy these famous film scenes as much as we do.

Here’s our favourite films featuring coffee:

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

This well-watched romantic tale sees two store owners, Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) and Joe Fox (Tom Hanks), discovering they might have more in common than they realise — including a love of coffee.

Goodfellas (1990)

Just when you think Tommy (Joe Pesci) and Frankie (Frank Sivero) are popping by for a civilised visit to see Stacks (Samuel L. Jackson) — and Tommy asks Frankie to make a pot of coffee — things get suddenly violent. After an unexpectedly brutal moment, Tommy instructs Frankie to make the coffee ‘to go’.

Amélie (2001)

Coffee makes an appearance in many scenes throughout this much-loved Parisian-set film. And, while trying her best to match-make her colleague Georgette (Isabelle Nanty) with Joseph (Dominique Pinon), cafe worker Amélie (Audrey Tautou) spills hot coffee over Georgette.

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

A film that brings together a multitude of familiar actors, musicians and artists, Coffee and Cigarettes interweaves each separate scene together with two common things: coffee and cigarettes.

Zoolander (2001)

Coffee often sparks danger in Zoolander. Derek Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and his friends run into fatal trouble after they pick up their ‘Orange Mocha Frappucinos’ and start a fuel fight — and, when Jacobim Mugatu (Will Ferrell) is handed a frothy latte from his assistant, the poor minion is scolded (and scalded).

Mulholland Drive (2001)

With his own coffee range, it’s no surprise that director David Lynch’s films and TV shows pay homage to his beverage of choice. In Mulholland Drive, gangster Luigi Castigliani (Angelo Badalamenti) spits out an espresso that’s not to his liking, embarrassing his host who declairs it the world’s best coffee.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

When Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) emerges from her yellow taxi outside Tiffany & Co — coffee in one hand, and a pastry in the other —  in the early morning light of an empty-looking New York City, an iconic film scene unfolds and reminds us it’s time for a coffee.