Frank Shirley in Christmas Vacation - 2017 Great Villain Blogathon

 Frank Shirley in Christmas Vacation

Editor’s note : this piece is a part of the legendary Great Villains Blogathon (2017Edition) and an informal return from my semi-retirement as a film critic.

It's a Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra, 1946)

An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed.

The great American classic of Christmas movies that is It’s a Wonderful Life is like the Casablanca of holiday films. Almost everyone has seen it and some adore it while others, let’s call them the naysayers, call it overrated. Loosely based on Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, Frank Capra’s film has passed through the ages like a classic novel that lustre the nostalgia of the old-fashioned Christmas.

Book Review : The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book: 15 Designs to Spread Holiday Cheer

Book Review : The LEGO Christmas Ornaments Book: 15 Designs to Spread Holiday Cheer by Chris McVeigh (2016, No Starch Press 1st edition)

Christmas is coming!

A Christmas Story

A Christmas Story (Bob Clark, 1983)

Ralphie has to convince his parents, his teacher, and Santa that a Red Ryder B.B. gun really is the perfect gift for the 1940s.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (Jeremiah Chechik, 1989)

Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) is an upper middle class father of two teenagers Audrey (Juliette Lewis) and Russ (John Galecki) and he wants to throw a classic Holiday just like when he was 10 years old  back in 1959 with his entire extended family including his uncle Lewis (William Hickey) his aunt Bethany (Mae Questel) and his wife’s (Beverly D’Angelo) cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid). Add in Sam McMurray, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, John Randolph, Diane Ladd, E. G. Marshall, Nicholas Guest, Brian Doyle-Murray, and the beautiful Nicolette Scorsese and you have my family’s Holiday favorite.

Home Alone

Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990)

Kevin McCallister (Macauley Culkin) is an eight-year-old boy that was left alone in his house when his family flies to Paris for their Christmas vacation. In the meantime, the wet bandits, Harry (Joe Pesci) and Marv (Daniel Stern), have planned to rob Kevin’s house during the night before Christmas. But they don’t know that he is an ingenious little brat that will be a pain in their ass.

The Shop Around the Corner

The Shop Around the Corner (Ernst Lubitsch, 1940)

Two employees of a Budapest shop can’t stand each other but they are secretly falling in love as anonymous correspondents.

Elf

Elf (Jon Favreau, 2003)

The story is about one of Santa's elves who learns of his true identity as a human and goes to New York City to meet his biological father, spreading Christmas cheer in a world of cynics as he goes.

Gremlins

Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984)

A boy (Zack Galligan) inadvertently breaks 3 important rules concerning his new pet and unleashes a horde of malevolently mischievous monsters on a small town.

Bad Santa

Bad Santa (Terry Zwigoff, 2003)

A miserable conman (Billy Bob Thornton) and his partner (Tony Cox) pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid (Brett Kelly), and the security boss (Bernie Mac) discovers the plot.

A Charlie Brown Christmas

A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez, 1965)

This short film has always been a favorite of mine while preparing for Christmas since my childhood. Not having cable TV until I was 25 years old forced me to watch shows on standard television. The Charlie Brown specials were some of my favorites. Fond memories of those little shorts of minimalism filled with Charles M. Schulz’s great characters will follow me all my life. 

The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993)

 After they throw another great Halloween, the people of Halloween town are convinced by Jack Skellington to take the task of doing Christmas this year. After he visits the world of Christmas and discovers many elements of the classic holiday. But you can’t ask monsters and ghouls to celebrate Christmas without being frightening and scary. On top of that, Jack falls in love with Sally the creation of the mad scientist of the village.

Late November update - Christmas Is Coming

As the turning point of the year that commercials, radio stations, and shopping malls now announce the day after Halloween, Christmas is coming and this year it is on December the 25 th.

Die Hard

Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988)

John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save wife Holly Gennaro and several others, taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles.

Being born in the 1980’s makes me a kid of the John Wayne of my time, Arnold, Stalone, Van Dam, Jackie Chan, and Bruce Willis were the actors I wouldn’t miss a film. The later who played the character of Officer John McClane was my favorite; I remember very well that the first time I got to a Theatre by myself was for the opening night of Die Hard: With a Vengeance in Sorel. The first film of the franchise, Die Hard, is a game changer movie that even ranks third in the Top 10 of Christmas movies I cumulated for this December. Without much further ramblings about myself here’s my a little enthusiastic review of this Action Film classic.

My Criterion Christmas Wishlist

 Dear Santa,

I’m writing from Québec, near the North Pole, you know me, I like films, movies, talkies, well I’m passionate about Cinema. Above all that, there is a collection that I cherish more than any other: the Criterion one. In fact, they are the perfect Christmas gift for cinephiles if you ask me. Their catalog is vast of quality classics, foreign masterpieces, and contemporary rarities. In the sets you have the film itself but with that it’s packed with juicy extras like interviews, documentaries, shorts, and amazing color booklets.  

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a Happy Christmas full of joy and great times with your family and friends!

Let's hope Santa brought you many great presents (DVDs, books on Cinema, memorabilias, etc.) to pump you up!

I invite you to share in the comments what Santa has brought to you!

Merry Christmas!

- Michaël

Fanny and Alexander

Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
When Bergman announced this film he also said to whoever wanted to hear that it was gonna be his final directing job. History told us that he made some movies after this 1982 picture. However, Fanny and Alexander seems like the perfect testament from one of the greatest, if not the greatest filmmaker of all time. The rich colours, the wonderful mise en scène and the panoramic framing of every scene is just perfect. Plus, it begins with a warm celebration of christmas in Sweden of the early 20th Century.

A family that looks like a lot like Bergman's description of his, an actor father that dies too young. His mother getting married with a strict pastor who hates children, and the use of every trick in the bag of Bergman. Well, this is Bergman's autobiographical picture where Alexander portrays the little Ingmar in his childhood when he discovered the theater and the first cinema-lanterns. One of the most famous stills from this film is the Alexander picture watching his little theater in the night of Christmas.

The plot is an amalgam of Bergman's childhood memories but also his influences in films with subtle references to Hamlet, which is the play his family rehearse and one time his mother calls him Hamlet when he can't stand his stepfather. The many spectral apparitions and the construction of the story reminds the great plays of Strindberg, one of Bergman's favourite playwriter. The film has this classic approach to drama and narrative while being a fresh Bergman film, original and unique.

However, the most interesting aspect of this film is the warmth of the images and the atmosphere of joy and reverence from the entire cast. When you look at the Making Of from the wonderful Criterion set, there is a sense of happiness, joy from the shooting of the film and Bergman seems relieved to shot this film and tie the bow with this magnificent opus. He looks content at what he has done and the final film seems to make him proud of what he did not only as a director but as an artist.

As a Bergman enthusiast and a true lover of Christmas and the Holidays I think that the whole sequence depicting the night of Christmas, the meal, the music, the dancing, and the family fun that it represents reminded me of the memories of what this celebration used to be in my childhood. Like the celebration of Christmas depicted in the Claude Jutra film Mon oncle Antoine that represents how we celebrate Noël in my part of the world. Fanny and Alexander has been since the first time I saw it one of my Holiday favorite. A must see and a masterpiece.

Mon oncle Antoine

Mon oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971)


With the holiday season coming I will present and analyze some Christmas movies. This is a film from my country/province. Claude Jutra's 1971 Mon oncle Antoine. In a miner town in the Province of Quebec in the 1940's a young teenager; Benoit who works at the General store witnesses and sees on the 24th of december how the adults behave and live in this joyful time.

The transition of Benoit to the adult wold is well presented on many angles with his discovery of the young Carmen, the death of a boy about his age and the many discussions he will witness at the General store.

With a script that recalls the traditionnal litterature of the first writers of the Province of Quebec, Jutra presents with his documentary style the life and beings of the people living in this little town on the only day of the year that the mine is closed, Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, the second half of the film is difficult for the characters and it reflects on the viewer that would prefer see the joyful celebrations instead of uncle Antoine being terribly drunk...

I, however, really liked the many interactions between the characters and the generations. I also enjoyed the traditionnal celebrations of Christmas Eve that reminded me how it was the only day the workers had a break of the exhausting working conditions.

Critique en français -

Dans cette série de critiques qui tentera de vous présenter des films à thème/sur fond de Noël pour ce mois de Décembre 2009. Je vous présente un film bien de chez moi. Dans une ville minière au Québec dans les années 1940; Benoît, jeune adolescent qui travaille au magasin général de son oncle Antoine vit et observe en cette journée du 24 décembre comment les adultes qui l'entourent vivent ces réjouissances.

Le passage vers l'âge adulte de Benoît nous est montré sur plusieurs facettes dont sa découverte de la jeune Carmen, le décès d'un jeune homme de son âge et les nombreux échanges dont il est témoin au magasin général.

Avec un scénario qui rappelle la littérature du terroir québécoise, Jutra nous expose avec son style très documentaire la vie d'un village québécois à un rare moment de réjouissances, le réveillon de Noël.

Cependant, la seconde moitié du film est très pénible pour les personnages et peu à peu cela se transmet à l'auditoire qui préférerait de loin assister aux réjouissances qu'à la soulerie monumentale de l'oncle Antoine...

J'ai, par contre, bien aimé les interactions et la musique qui nous rappelle les Noël d'antan et les traditions bien de chez nous.