Holiday Favorites

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Sloper
Joined: Tue May 29, 2007 10:06 pm

Re: Holiday Favorites

#101 Post by Sloper » Fri Dec 11, 2009 5:58 pm

For Christmas, nothing beats Jason and the Argonauts - nothing exactly festive about it, but I first saw it on a Christmas day and always try to watch it around that time. Trust me, it just works!

Last year, on New Year's Eve, my family and I watched The Dead, timing it so it finished just before midnight. Warm but sobering, it's the perfect film after all the exaggerated cheer and festivity of Christmas. Unless of course you actually enjoy raucous New Year's parties, in which case sticking this on probably won't win you any friends. Personally, I find that sharing in Gabriel's bleak epiphany is a great way to settle into the realisation that I have yet another whole bloody year to get through...

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Murdoch
Joined: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:59 pm
Location: Upstate NY

Re: Holiday Favorites

#102 Post by Murdoch » Sat Dec 12, 2009 3:43 am

Just watched Better Off Dead for the umpteenth time and it has Christmas in it, totally forgot about that! Found my go to x-mas movie for from now on.

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bigP
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:59 am
Location: Reading, UK

Re: Holiday Favorites

#103 Post by bigP » Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:47 am

Michael Kerpan wrote:My relatives would disown me if I gave them copies of Kon's film. ;~}
Hehe, I'm choosing the recipitents wisely. Actually, it's a Kon heavy year as someone will be receiving Millenium Actress in their stocking too.

Revelator
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:33 pm

Re: Holiday Favorites

#104 Post by Revelator » Mon Dec 14, 2009 6:34 pm

Two Holiday films worth screening at this time of year:

Remember the Night. Directed by Mitchell Leisen, written by Preston Sturges. An unsung classic and just about the perfect Christmas film, a searing romance that's not like anything else Sturges wrote, though it has his characteristic moral relativism and view of virtue and vice as interchangeable love-carried viruses. Prosecutor Fred MacMurray feels sorry for petty thief Barbara Stanwyck and takes her into the American heartland to celebrate with his folks (and less so with hers). Like all the best Christmas movies, there's just as much pain as celebration on hand. It's only on VHS but worth seeking out.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The best Bond film ever made is also the only one specifically set during Christmas. The timing is put to especially sardonic use, since Blofeld and Bond have no use for "goodwill toward all men". Director Peter Hunt makes excellent use of the Swiss and Portuguese locations, playing them off against each other by alternating golden summer idylls with wintry alps and chasms and staging ski and bobsled chases that are still innovative 40 years later. The holiday celebrations lend depth to the most fully developed and tragic love story in the series.

Caged Horse
Joined: Wed May 13, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: Dead

Re: Holiday Favorites

#105 Post by Caged Horse » Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:00 pm

Certainly On Her Majesty's Secret Service deserves a (second) look in the 'grim and gritty, back to basics' Craig-era.

What about Goodfellas, with its sprinkling of ostentatious festive decorations, 'Frosty the Snowman' on the soundtrack -- and definite lack of goodwill towards men, even at Christmas?

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bigP
Joined: Thu Mar 20, 2008 10:59 am
Location: Reading, UK

Re: Holiday Favorites

#106 Post by bigP » Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:20 pm

Caged Horse wrote:What about Goodfellas, with its sprinkling of ostentatious festive decorations, 'Frosty the Snowman' on the soundtrack -- and definite lack of goodwill towards men, even at Christmas?
It would be a tough call to decide between a festive Goodfella's and a merry Vera Drake as two which will give me the lowest Pot-Noodle eating Christmas yet. They both have their charm.

Caged Horse
Joined: Wed May 13, 2009 2:41 pm
Location: Dead

Re: Holiday Favorites

#107 Post by Caged Horse » Mon Dec 14, 2009 7:37 pm

The Christmas party scene following the big heist, with De Niro's rage mounting as the mobsters arrive having treated themselves to increasingly OTT presents, is as memorably excruciating as anything in The King of Comedy.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Holiday Favorites

#108 Post by knives » Mon Dec 14, 2009 11:35 pm

Brazil is usually my odd holiday choice.

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reaky
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 8:53 am
Location: Cambridge, England

Re: Holiday Favorites

#109 Post by reaky » Tue Dec 15, 2009 4:42 am

Remember the Night. It's only on VHS but worth seeking out.

Good news, Revelator.

HarryLong
Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2008 12:39 pm
Location: Lebanon, PA

Re: Holiday Favorites

#110 Post by HarryLong » Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:25 am

Though I've never thought of it as such, TCM programmed THE LION IN WINTER over the weekend & yeah, it is a Xmas movie. Lots of gift-giving, backstabbing family politics ...

Revelator
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:33 pm

Re: Holiday Favorites

#111 Post by Revelator » Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:38 am

reaky wrote:Remember the Night. It's only on VHS but worth seeking out.

Good news, Revelator.
Very good indeed! I ordered my copy today.

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Gregory
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 4:07 pm

Re: Holiday Favorites

#112 Post by Gregory » Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:40 am

reaky wrote:Remember the Night. It's only on VHS but worth seeking out.
It's on DVD in the Italian Cofanetto Mitchell Leisen and also available as a DVD (-R?) from Universal's TCM Vault Collection.

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domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Holiday Favorites

#113 Post by domino harvey » Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:29 am

WFMU digs up an impossibly large assortment of TV Christmas specials viewable online

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Holiday Favorites

#114 Post by colinr0380 » Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:53 am

Featuring the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special at the bottom of their list!

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Highway 61
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:40 pm

Re: Holiday Favorites

#115 Post by Highway 61 » Fri Nov 26, 2010 5:19 pm

I saw White Christmas for the first time yesterday after Thanksgiving dinner, and while I didn't think highly of the film, I felt compelled to report that the Blu-ray is stunning. The colors of Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen's costumes are astonishing. Granted it could have been the settings of my aunt's television, but if what I saw was accurate, I'd say it would make an excellent demo disc.

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Cold Bishop
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:45 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Re: Holiday Favorites

#116 Post by Cold Bishop » Fri Nov 26, 2010 7:01 pm

Quai des Orfèvres

flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
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Christmas Movies and TV Specials

#117 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Sun Dec 23, 2012 11:34 pm

A Charlie Brown Christmas remains my favorite Christmas-related anything.
Last edited by flyonthewall2983 on Thu Dec 25, 2014 12:46 am, edited 2 times in total.

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mfunk9786
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Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: Christmas movies/TV specials

#118 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Dec 24, 2012 12:05 am

I found out this year that it still makes this cranky bearded atheist cry.

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swo17
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Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: Christmas movies/TV specials

#119 Post by swo17 » Mon Dec 24, 2012 12:32 am

flyonthewall2983 wrote:A Charlie Brown Christmas remains my favorite Christmas-related anything
Truth.

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knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Christmas Movies and TV Specials

#120 Post by knives » Mon Dec 24, 2012 12:34 am

I'm more of a Rankin-Bass guy myself.

beamish13
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:31 am

Re: Holiday Favorites

#121 Post by beamish13 » Mon Dec 24, 2012 3:49 am

Bill Forsyth's COMFORT & JOY (1984) is the kind of holiday-centered film curmudgeons like myself can enjoy repeatedly.

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Lowry_Sam
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 3:35 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: Holiday Favorites

#122 Post by Lowry_Sam » Mon Dec 24, 2012 3:50 am

I usually revisit any of the following around Xmas:

Brazil
Fanny & Alexander
The City Of Lost Children
Female Trouble
The Twilight Zone "Night Of The Meek" episode
The Junky's Christmas
Dame Edna Experience Christmas Specials
How The Grinch Stole Christmas

beamish13
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2007 5:31 am

Re: Holiday Favorites

#123 Post by beamish13 » Mon Dec 24, 2012 2:11 pm

You can't forget the Alan Partridge holiday special!

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Forrest Taft
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 8:34 pm
Location: Stavanger, Norway

Re: Holiday Favorites

#124 Post by Forrest Taft » Tue Dec 25, 2012 2:18 pm

We watch The Homemade Xmas Video by Smith & Jones every Christmas, and I never tire of it. The same goes for a beautiful animated short from Sweden called Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton, directed by Per Åhlin from a story by Tage Danielsson.

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domino harvey
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Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: Holiday Favorites

#125 Post by domino harvey » Tue Dec 25, 2012 2:30 pm

My dad pulled the ol' switcheroo and put the TV on Cheech and Chong, not A Christmas Story, during family breakfast this morning, so I guess we all have room for new traditions

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