12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS: #12 Black Christmas (1974, dir by Bob Clark, Canada) Over the next few days, we want to write about some of the classic yet, possibly, still underrated or under the radar holiday movies. One of the great things about Christmas movies is that Christmas can be THE major theme or it can be in the background. Or just come at the end. Or in the middle. But somehow, Christmas, if you pay attention, actually plays a major part in the story. First up, we look at Bob Clark's classic 1974 horror movie. Only a few girls remain at a college sorority over the holidays. And girl by girl gets killed by an unseen killer who also likes to call and torment them. This programmer has mentioned before how he's not a big fan of slasher movies as a genre. There's something cynical about a movie focused on "great kills". Yet BLACK CHRISTMAS, while totally being a slasher movie (be prepared), is also a fascinating puzzle. Is the killer someone we've met in the movie or totally unrelated? Do we understand the motives of the killer or do they remain a mystery? Setting the movie at Christmas (rather than just winter) is a stroke of genius. The upbeat signifiers of the holiday are like cruel taunts as the innocent characters have no idea how close they are to their doom. It's got a great cast (Olivia Hussey, Margot Kidder, Keir Dullea of 2001(!)) and the direction is brilliant. In fact, Bob Clark would go on to make the hilarious warm humanist holiday classic A CHRISTMAS STORY 9 years later, so the director clearly understood something about Christmas. Both its scary lonely underbelly and its good side.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS: #11 MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (1944, dir by Vincente Minnelli) Although many of us know this movie as the rightful classic it is, this programmer still feels it's not talked about nearly enough. We follow a St. Louis family in the late 19th century through four seasons (including the pivotal life changing winter/Christmas season). It's a heart-warming movie that looks at the joys and tribulations of a loving family. It probably could go in a "family" genre that includes Ingmar Bergman's FANNY & ALEXANDER, Fellini's I VITELLONI and AMARCORD, Orson Welles' THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS, Wes Anderson's THE MAGNIFICENT TANENBAUMS, Hou Hsiao Hsien's CITY OF SADNESS, even Takashi Miike's VISITOR Q or Alfred Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT. Yes! This is a crazy list. But all these movies somehow mine deep into the mysteries at the heart of family. Judy Garland stars as the older sister of a very loving family who nevertheless is put under great stress when the father decides to accept a job that means leaving their hometown of St. Louis and the life they've all grown to love. The movie is directed in full on "pure cinema magic" mode by the great Vincente Minnelli (THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, LUST FOR LIFE, THE BANDWAGON, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS). Bold technicolor. Amazing songs (including "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and "The Trolley Song"). The Christmas portion of the movie is actually the most emotional and painful. Showing yet again that sometimes Christmas works best in a movie when it serves as the bittersweet counterpoint to great upheaval and strife.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS: #10 Meet John Doe (1941, dir by Frank Capra) Meet John Doe is not a Christmas movie. And yet. . .it starts with a fake letter published in a newspaper from "John Doe" threatening to kill himself on Christmas Eve. The letter is actually written by desperate journalist Barbara Stanwyck who not only keeps her job when the stunt boosts circulation but gets tasked with finding someone to pretend to be John Doe. This someone is downtrodden yet good soul Depression vagabond Gary Cooper. And the movie ends with a climax ON Christmas Eve where Cooper might actually commit suicide just as the letter asserted. This movie is this programmer's favorite Capra film behind IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (another Christmas movie!). If you've never seen it, Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin actually dare to point out that there are moneyed selfish forces in America ready to exploit populist messages for self-gain. And that these forces are just fine if the country turns to fascism if it means their aggrandizement. MEET JOHN DOE was written as a direct response to the fascist sympathizers in the US who idolized Adolf Hitler and Mussolini and didn't want us to get involved in the war. What makes DOE so relevant and unsettling is how these dangerous undercurrents must be repulsed every generation, including ours, like a hydra who will always sprout back heads. MEET JOHN DOE is a bleak Christmas movie (if it is a Christmas movie) but it's Christmas Eve ending reminds us that democracy only works if every generation fights for and prioritizes it. Vibrant democracy and complacency don't mix. Citizens need to fight to keep and improve upon what past generations fought so hard to provide for us. There are always vipers hiding in the shadows who don't care anything about values or our better angels. But MEET JOHN DOE reminds us there are usually only 1 or 2 of them a generation and there are always 340 million of us who can stop them. As long as we're willing to actively protect our values, we'll be okay.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #9: EYES WIDE SHUT (1999, dir by Stanley Kubrick) 20 years later, EYES WIDE SHUT only gets better and better. So much so in fact that this programmer considers it one of his own personal favorite Kubrick's. It's hard to explain the anticipation and then bewilderment surrounding this movie when it premiered in 1999. After all, it had been 13 years since the last Kubrick movie (FULL METAL JACKET) and everyone knew this would be Kubrick's last (Kubrick passed away four months before the movie premiered). Everyone also thought they were going to get some kind of arthouse porno thriller. What they got instead was a movie that plunged everyone into the psycho-sexual beast of marriage. EWS takes place across several days in full bloom Christmas season in New York City. It starts at a Christmas Party thrown by one of Dr. Tom Cruise's obscenely rich clients and ends with Cruise and wife Kidman Christmas shopping with their daughter at toy store FAO Schwartz. In between, we get a fascinating mysterious first half/second half structure where Kidman, in a fit of fiery truth-telling, admits to husband Cruise she's lusted after other men. This admission sends Cruise on a nocturnal odyssey of male insecurity and jealousy that finds him courting prostitutes but ends at a secret orgy of the rich. The second half of the movie is essentially Cruise's reckoning that he's not the center of his wife's or anyone's universe. And that there are forces-personal, societal, sexual-beyond his understanding or control. Most daringly, Kubrick is getting at the very HEART of mystery in long term relationships. There are no sentient computers, aliens, nuclear wars, haunted hotels, or futuristic gangs here. But there is something every frame as important and profound. There is a husband and wife. Sex. Their secret fantasy lives. Their resentments and differences. And yet. . .an almost irrational yet blindingly optimistic desire to preserve their relationship.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #8: THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER (1940, dir by Ernst Lubitsch) It's one of life's strange ironies to this programmer that Jimmy Stewart stars in possibly the two greatest Christmas movies ever made yet one of them doesn't get talked about nearly enough. We all know (rightfully) the amazing IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. But just 6 years earlier, before the war, Stewart starred with Margaret Sullivan in what this programmer considers master moviemaker Ernst Lubitsch's best movie. Employees and the Boss at a Hungarian Department store go through their own personal ups and downs of the Christmas season. The Boss discovers his wife is having an affair and fears the Don Juan is none other than his most trusted head clerk Alfred (Jimmy Stewart). Meanwhile, down on her luck yet resourceful Clara (Margaret Sullivan) lands a job as a clerk. She's involved in a long distance love relationship with a man who writes the most amazing love letters. . .but she's never met him face to face. We know that man is actually Alfred whom Clara can't stand. The most gentle, humane, tolerant, and observant of Christmas movies. SHOP was ironically made by an Ashkenazi Jew who possibly had just the right amount of distance and outsiderness to truly pay homage to the panoply of intense emotion that is this holiday. Ernst Lubitsch was the Mozart of illuminating human contradiction cinematically. But he never did it with bitterness. He always did it with a cinematic cleverness that felt like the equivalent of a wise if morally loose grandfather shrugging his shoulders and saying with a laugh "What are we going to do? We humans really are pieces of work." Yet, Lubitsch movies also celebrate the best of humanity. Here we see that real decency can win out in the end and that even someone going through the most devastating of personal tragedies can be saved by an unseen grace and reconnect with the world and what is good about life. One of the funniest movies ever made. One of the warmest. One of the most wonderfully Christmas feeling. One of the greatest.

THE 12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #7: FANNY & ALEXANDER (1982, written & directed by Ingmar Bergman; please watch the 5 hour TV version available through Criterion) It is rare that a filmmaker hits a home run on her or his "last" movie. Bergman hits a grand slam. Now. . .before we quibble about details (yes, FANNY & ALEXANDER was actually made for Swedish television and the 5 hour TV version is superior to the 3 hour international feature version; yes Bergman went on to direct SARABAND and a few other projects before his death), Bergman was clear that he meant FANNY AND ALEXANDER to be his cinematic farewell. Bergman tells the story of the Ekdahl family as seen through the eyes of sister and brother Fanny and Alexander across a particularly tumultuous year in their lives. Their loving theater directing father dies. Their mother remarries a sadistic Lutheran Bishop. Their Uncles have affairs, fall into depressions. Alexander sees ghosts and is intrigued by a Jewish family friend who may possess magical powers and a deeper understanding of the universe. And through it all, their grandmother makes sure the family perseveres. Bergman said he was inspired to make F & A because a close friend pointed out "Ingmar, you're always making these heavy movies but you have such a personal sense of humor and love of life. Folks should see that!" And Bergman took up the challenge and ended up making one of the most life-affirming, optimistic, uplifting movies of his career. The movie opens with one of the greatest "single event" sequences ever (alongside the wedding in GODFATHER 1, the wedding in THE DEER HUNTER, and the final party in Visconti's THE LEOPARD), the annual Christmas party at the Ekdahl house. All the themes of the 5 hour odyssey get laid out here. F&A is also clearly a kind of Bergman summation (as TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN was to David Lunch). We recognize in Alexander all the tensions that consumed Bergman (theater and religion, cinema and women, the secular and the supernatural). Bergman had such a grandmother and had such Uncles. But maybe. . .what's most surprising in this movie is Bergman's return to a kind openness to magic and mystery in the universe. Bergman in his middle age was on the record as feeling there was no God or life after death. He felt he had answered that question (at least for himself). But in FANNY & ALEXANDER, Bergman seems to open the door again to a kind of openness to the unknowability of the universe, life after death, magic, the psyche. One of Bergman's closest actors, Max Von Sydow, relayed a story that Bergman, late in life, told Sydow he had returned to a belief in life after death and to prove it, would visit Sydow after his death. "Mr. Bergman has visited me many times since. . ." Sydow began then stopped not wanting to elaborate more. A story as mysterious, beautiful, and intriguing as human existence itself. Somehow beautifully encapsulated in this stunning mysterious, life affirming masterwork.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #6: TANGERINE (2015, dir by Sean Baker) One of the "newest" classics on this list, TANGERINE follows Sin-dee and Alexandra, two transgender sex worker best friends, on Christmas Eve as they walk Santa Monica Blvd looking for Chester, Sindee's cheating pimp/boyfriend. One of the common themes this programmer has noticed in this list is how these "under the radar" Christmas classics miraculously get at the themes of Christmas by their climaxes just as effectively as their better known counterparts. What's most touching about TANGERINE are Sin-dee's and Alexandra's co-dependent, frustrating, yet profound friendship and the way supporting characters like Razmik, a married cab driver who is a regular John of the friends, are shown in all their complexity and humanity. The end of the movie is a hilarious climax on Christmas Eve at the no longer existing Donut Time (now Trejo's Doughnuts) near Santa Monica Blvd and Highland. We see the best AND the worst of all the characters. Secrets are revealed. Scores are settled. But through it all, Sindee and Alexandra have seen their friendship tested and come to realize just how important their love and friendship for each other is in getting them through. As important a Christmas message as any.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #5: BAD SANTA (2003, dir by Terry Zwigoff, co-written by Ethan and Joel Coen; Try to watch the original theatrical release. Not the "Badder Santa unrated" version which includes scenes that were rightfully cut out because they don't work). BAD SANTA is still one of those revelatory theatrical experiences this programmer will never forget. One wintry 2003 evening in Phoenix, Arizona (visiting our grandparents), my sister, brother, and I snuck out and saw this at a 10:45pm showing at a megaplex. We couldn't believe how hilarious, foul-mouthed, irreverent, "go for broke" darkly comic this movie was. Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie, a self-hating alcoholic thief who along with larcenous partner Tony Cox pretends to be a mall Santa and Elf in order to rip off the mall blind every Christmas Eve. But this time, Willie finds himself housesitting for a super trusting yet mega-awkward tween and seeing Sue, a local Jewish bartender (Lauren Graham), who always fantasized about sleeping with Santa. The Coen Brothers did a re-write on this and you can feel their fingerprints all over it. BAD SANTA is a kind of Christmas miracle because it somehow gets at the themes of found families, redemption, discovering the true meaning of Christmas BY BEING completely inappropriate at every turn. Thornton delivers what may be the performance he'll best be remembered for, fully committing to a broken sex-addicted man who begins the movie not caring about anyone (especially himself) and ending it having strangely discovered. . .well. . .check it out. Possibly the most laugh out loud raunchy Christmas movie of all time.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #4: THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK (1944, wri/dir by Preston Sturges) This programmer still can't believe this racy movie got by the censors in 1944 even though its heart is made of the sweetest, most sincere stuff. The cleverest and quirkiest of classic Hollywood scribes, Preston Sturges, tells the tale of Trudy who loves departing World War II Soldiers a bit too much. . .and well. . .wakes up one morning. . .in the family way without knowing who the Papa might be. Local hapless do-gooder and clutz Norval, who is sweet on Trudy, is determined to help her through this without anyone finding out she's pregnant. Of course. . .things don't go as planned and folks begin to suspect Norval is the father. Yet again another movie that builds to a Christmas Eve climax where the "miracle" is revealed AND will actually surprise you with its simple brilliance. Sturges was always willing to throw in left-field curveballs into his narratives at the very end (THE PALM BEACH STORY may be my favorite Sturges' deux ex machina curve) that somehow elevate his stories by their sheer wackiness. What makes MIRACLE probably this programmer's favorite Sturges' movie is how Sturges tackles a controversial issue with broad zany comedy (so that it becomes almost a magician's sleight of hand to distract the finger waggers) yet finds a way to land the plane with great humanism and affirmation in the goodness of people's souls. The greatest of filmmakers find ways to pierce the fog of moral convention so we can see anew the importance of not judging, not scolding, not preaching, not moralizing, but rather loving, accepting, helping. If these aren't Christmas values, what are?

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #3: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (2002, dir by Steven Spielberg) One of this programmer's personal favorite Spielberg movies and one we've written about before and will write about again. CATCH ME tells the hilarious, mostly true (!!) story of teenager Frank Abagnale Jr who successfully impersonated airline pilots, doctors, lawyers, duped folks out of millions of dollars, and perfected check forgery before eventually being brought down by the law. The movie is structured as one long chase between Frank (Leondardo Di Caprio in one of his most fun performances) and FBI agent Carl Hanratty (a wonderfully grumpy Tom Hanks) who talk by phone every Christmas and realize they are both linked by loneliness. CATCH ME is one of those cinematic gifts that gives on a surprising multitude of levels: it's some of Spielberg's best cinema EVER, all the performances are fireworks including newcomer Amy Adams, as Frank's too trusting fiance, and Christopher Walken, as Frank's errant father. This movie also feels as close as Steven Spielberg has ever gotten to out and out autobiography. The metaphor of a child of a broken family finding refuge in fiction, make believe, pretend, hustle applies to all of us who are children of tough divorces. The movie also, ironically, finds Spielberg reckoning with a life lived in fiction: at some point, you do have to wrestle with the reality of your situation and those people you've affected. Christmas infuses almost every section of this movie like great chapter endings. And like the greatest of Christmas movies, it acknowledges both the warmth and loneliness of a holiday that leaves many more people outside looking in than those snug by the fires realize. A hilarious comedy. A riveting chase movie. A Christmas classic.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #2: CHILDREN OF MEN (2006, dir by Alfonso Cuaron) Movies, in fact most storytelling, work best when subtexts can come in through the side door or whisper in your ear, if you want them. If you don't, you should be able to enjoy a story without feeling lectured to. CHILDREN OF MEN is brutal and shocking enough in what's on the surface. The world in the near future of 2027 is plagued with environmental shock. Populism is rabid. Refugees and immigrants are demonized and put into camps. Governments have lurched back to authoritarianism. And for unexplained reasons, no one has had a child in years. This last bit is so traumatizing to the world that the obituaries on the TV are of the youngest deaths not the oldest. Each child that dies brings ragged humanity that much closer to extinction. Enter jaded, cynical Theo (Clive Owen), himself a father who lost both his child and wife sometime back. When his wife, now underground rebel leader Julian (Julianne Moore), reappears, Theo wants no part in her revolutionary activities. But it turns out that Julian is onto something beyond politics. . .something miraculous. And through a turn of shocking events, Theo finds he must shepherd Kee, the first pregnant woman in a generation, to safety before political, moneyed, and nefarious interests get to her. If you're attuned to it, you might have already picked up why this is a Christmas movie. But if that isn't your bag, you can just watch this movie for the emotional, storytelling, cinematic tour de force that it is on hope itself. Much has been made rightly of Cuaron and cinematographer Emmanuelle Lubezski's stunning shots, film language in this movie. What has hit this programmer even harder is how Cuaron found a way to tell a deeply spiritual and redemptive story in an updated version that would appeal to atheist, agnostic, and believer alike. Words in the end are just our feeble attempts at communicating ideas that house an infinitude of meaning beyond our abilities. It's here that hope and God and redemption and transcendence truly reside. Beyond our horizon lines but horizons we nevertheless will forever strive to reach.

12 FILMS OF CHRISTMAS #1: THE DECALOGUE (1988, dir by Krysztof Kieslowski) Possibly the BEST LIMITED TV SERIES EVER MADE(!), THE DECALOGUE is a Polish production directed, co-written by Krzysztof Kieślowski that wrestles with each of the 10 commandments in surprisingly complex, unexpected, fascinating, powerful ways. Co-writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz came up with the idea after having seen a series of 15th century paintings interpreting the commandments. Why not update it to a 1980's Warsaw, Poland apartment complex? But each episode is anything but a moralistic re-assuring pat on the back for judgemental finger waggers. If anything, director and co-writer seem intent on proving HOW HARD it is to live by the commandments. Further, how sometimes you have to BREAK the commandments in order to actually truly honor them. I know, I know. How is that possible? DECALOGUE THREE ("Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy") tells the Christmas Eve story of married taxicab driver Janusz who is visited by his ex-lover Ewa. Ewa asks him to help her find her missing husband. Though Janusz does not want to leave his family, he senses some hidden urgency in Ewa's request and they embark on a platonic but emotional night of the soul. It's pretty hard to explain, unless you watch this episode, how this story ends up affirming marriage though Janusz re-unites with an ex-lover. Or how this story re-affirms family, Christmas, life, redemption, while digging into adultery, selfishness, loneliness, thoughts of suicide. But it does! This is the power of the entire series (several other episodes take place in winter and have a Christmas-y feel to them). Still, you have to be willing to endure EPISODE ONE which is brilliant but almost unbearably tough. This seems to be the point. Because EPISODE TEN is an out and out comedy and hilarious. The series itself almost unconsciously (but maybe it was conscious) seems to point out if we wrestle earnestly with the heavy stuff, there can be redemption on the other end. It's not a fun nor smooth nor straight nor even fully intelligble ride. But if we see it through, there is a profundity and depth that enriches and enlarges everything.

Written by Craig Hammill, Founder.Programmer of Secret Movie Club.