Mainlining Christmas

You'd think after doing this for fifteen years I'd already know about a Christmas movie made by one of the most famous and revered filmmakers in cinema history, but here we are. Directed and cowritten by Akira Kurosawa, the legendary creator of Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Yojimbo, The Hidden Fortress, and numerous other classics, Scandal tells the somber story of a painter and singer who are victims of libel, as well as their lawyer, who struggles after accepting a bribe to sabotage the case. The bulk of the film is set in December of 1949, with about fifteen minutes spent on Christmas itself, which serves several thematic purposes and sets up the movie's final act. The film is quite good, which should come as a surprise to absolutely no one after hearing who made it. The cast features some of Kurosawa's regulars, including Toshiro Mifune as the painter, Aoye, and Takashi Shimura as his lawyer, Hiruta. The singer, Miyako, is played by Yoshiko Yamaguchi (I'm just going ...

Before I even attempt to describe this 1929 silent German film, it's worth noting this movie is - in my opinion at least - bonkers in ways no movie with synchronized sound I've encountered approaches. The plot seems to be largely pulled from its source material, a pair of plays by Frank Wedekind detailing the life and death of Lulu, a fictional woman whose sexual charisma and liberality seem to bring about destruction. What makes this more than garden-variety misogyny is the fact that while Lulu certainly isn't blameless, virtually every turning point leading to a character's death, destitution, or corruption is instigated by a male character. The film examines the way society blames women for roles it forces upon them. It's not really Lulu who's responsible for the majority of what occurs, but rather those around her. Or at least that's my interpretation. I find silent pictures harder to analyze than the talkies we're all more familiar with due to the i...

I see John Waters's 1974 film on lists of Christmas movies fairly often, though I'd hesitate to categorize it as such myself. The movie features an extended opening set during the holidays, but at 13 minutes, it's a small portion of the overall runtime. I still wanted to say a few things here, since the movie's Christmas sequence is both memorable and used innovatively. More on that in a moment. First, I should say a few things about the movie, or at the very least attempt to do so. Female Trouble is, by design, a weird, off-putting, offensive movie. Waters gravitates towards taboo subjects, finding humor in grotesque imagery. I believe this is the first NC-17 movie we've written about on this site, and the movie earns its rating. None of that is meant to be presented in either a positive or negative light: frankly, I'm not at all sure how to formulate an opinion on this as a film. I found quite a bit of it funny, though I was just as often repulsed by what was ...

Our rule of thumb is to consider virtually any movie set primarily at Christmas as a Christmas movie, a litmus test significantly more liberal than most. I'm sure a lot of people roll their eyes at hearing Jaws: The Revenge or Alien: Covenant described as holiday entertainment, but I'm really not trying to play with technicalities or make a joke. These movies are, in my opinion, as much about Christmas as, say, The Shop Around the Corner , and shouldn't be excluded on arbitrary decisions based on which traditions they're part of. I'm opening with this because Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film, Psycho, serves as a rare counterexample. While it's set entirely during the Christmas season (between December 11th and the 20th, to be specific), I do not seriously consider it a Christmas movie, and the reason why highlights why I consider the aforementioned rule of thumb so useful. First, let's talk a bit about the movie, which I'm kind of embarrassed to admit I ...

Another in a growing line of films I'd never seriously consider calling a Christmas movie, but it's old enough, interesting enough, and uses the holidays in an interesting enough (albeit limited) capacity to make it worth discussing here. The holiday, incidentally, is New Year's (I don't believe Christmas is so much as mentioned), and for the most part that holiday's role is symbolic - the leads discuss it several times, but it's in the context of plans that can never be. It's not technically part of the actual narrative, though there is a brief epilogue offering a glimpse of the day in question.  I should also note this movie is fantastic, offering a complex blend of drama and comedy, with the latter enhancing the emotional impact of the former, rather than detracting. The jokes, which I'll add are pretty hilarious, pull you into the sense of whimsy and hope that comes with falling in love, even if the situation is dire. Tonally, this is a fairytale set...

The Preacher's Wife has been on our watch list for years, but it's one of those movies that never seems to land on streaming services, or at least not ones we're subscribed to. Eventually I broke down and ordered a DVD, which then sat in a pile beside my TV for months. There it remained until someone commented on our 10 year old review of The Bishop's Wife  politely calling us out for not getting to the remake. Guess what we watched that night.  My first observation watching it was that I was going to need to rewatch the original if I wanted to have anything more substantive to say than, "yeah, this one's really good, too." Fortunately, the 1947 film is a lot easier to watch online than the remake, which is why you're getting a hybrid article covering both versions. Looking at them together has the unusual effect of making both seem even better. The films start with the same underlying premise but approach it in such radically different ways they feel ...

This is one of those times the lack of a film studies background is especially palpable. This 47-minute black-and-white film was made by French New Wave auteur Jean Eustache, who Wikipedia assures me was an incredibly important figure in both the movement and film history as a whole. Since my background on French New Wave more or less begins and ends with the only other Christmas movie I've found from that subgenre , I won't have much to say about how it fits in. But the holiday setting, on the other hand, is something I've got some experience with, so - as always in these situations - please take any non-yuletide opinions or interpretations I express with a few extra grains of salt. The movie is set in a small French city and tells the story of a young man attempting (and failing) to navigate adulthood and women. The narrator and main character is Daniel (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, who Wikipedia informs me is also damn important to French cinema). He scrapes by as a pett...

When I first watched this a few years ago, I came to two conclusions: first, that it wasn't really what I'd consider a Christmas movie, and second that it was a goddamn masterpiece. That second point isn't exactly a new observation, even if audiences and critics weren't ready for Charles Laughton's visionary work of horror when it came out. The Night of the Hunter may have been a flop in 1955, but these days any list of "the greatest movies ever made" that doesn't include it is liable to face criticism of its own. I'll touch on why it's become so well regarded, but first let's tackle the thornier issue: whether the film's admittedly brief holiday sequence qualifies it for discussion here. The sequence in question occurs at the very end of the movie following a time jump - prior to that, the film seems to be set in the summer, though the precise date is left nebulous. It's a relatively brief sequence serving as a sort of coda to the ...

I've been meaning to re-watch this for a while. I originally wrote about this back in 2016, and while I'll link to that post , it's not one I'm proud of. Having a "review" up for a critically acclaimed adaptation of a James Joyce story where my take is basically just me whining that I found the movie boring hasn't sat well with me as my appreciation for different kinds of films has expanded. I suspected - correctly, I might add - I'd react differently if I gave the movie another chance. That said, I agree with at least part of my original sentiment - this one really isn't for everyone. It requires a great deal of attention to follow the large number of characters and their relationships. Multiple viewings are probably the best approach if you're unfamiliar with the source material - at an hour and twenty minutes, that's not too heavy a lift (I watched this twice yesterday, for anyone curious). Even then, the movie and its underlying plot (w...

There aren't a lot of definitions of "Christmas movies" that would include this, and I'm not about to claim otherwise. Despite that, I wanted to share a few thoughts for a couple reasons. First, this is an incredibly important and influential movie, which naturally makes me inclined to loosen my criteria. It's also a foreign film (French, if it wasn't clear from the title), which means it's providing us with at least a little insight into how another culture views the holiday season. Most importantly, while it only contains two relatively brief holiday sequences, one of those uses Christmas in a fairly unusual way, which - unless I miss my guess - reflects back on American Christmas movies. More on that later. The film is a colorful musical drama about a couple torn apart by a combination of forces beyond their control and their own decisions. It's notable for its operatic approach - although the music is fairly modern (or modern for 1964 musicals), ev...