Christmas Time Movies!

     On this past Thanksgiving Day, I remembered that on Thanksgiving weekend 1994 I went to the cinema twice to see the new but old-fashioned romantic comedy called Sleepless in Seattle. At the first viewing, I remember my sister whispering during the Christmas dinner scene near the start of the film, "Oh, it's Niles!" Not having yet seen Frasier, I had no idea who Niles was. Nowadays, of course, one of the reasons I watch Sleepless is to see David Hyde Pierce in his two brief scenes.

     Another main reason I watch Sleepless, at least during Advent and the Christmas season, is for its Christmas scenes at the beginning—even though it's all very secular, it's still jolly, and I always love Meg Ryan singing "horses, horses, horses" with the radio.

     Besides Sleepless in Seattle, there are numerous other movies I love to watch specifically at this time. It might surprise you that It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street (any version) are not among them. I think there are two reasons for their omission: 1) they're both on TV ad nauseum around Christmas time, and 2) I've always disliked following the crowd. "What's your favorite Christmas movie?" Seven times out of ten, the answer is It's a Wonderful Life. The other three times, it's Miracle on 34th Street. (Those are my own arbitrary statistics; don't go quoting them.) While I concede they are both wonderful films, I'm just ornery and choose to march to my own drummer boy. Pah-rrum-pum-pum-pum.

     So here, in random order after the first four, is my Christmas viewing list—most of these films are not specifically about Christmas, and some are emphatically non-religious (yes, I still retain some of my pagan past when it comes to movies), but all have Christmas scenes in them.

The Bishop's Wife - probably my favorite Christmas film
     (Cary Grant, Loretta Young)
The Shop around the Corner - probably my second favorite Christmas film
     (James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan)
White Christmas - probably my 3rd favorite Christmas film
Come to the Stable  (Loretta Young, Celeste Holm) - probably my fourth favorite Christmas film

Little Women 
     1933 (Katharine Hepburn)
     1994 (Winona Ryder)
     1978 (TV mini-series w/ Susan Dey)
     [Don't like the 1949 version with June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor!]
Meet Me in St. Louis  (Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien)
The Trouble with Angels  (Hayley Mills, Rosalind Russell)
Holiday Inn  (Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby)
Sleepless in Seattle
Desk Set  (Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy)
When Harry Met Sally ...
84, Charing Cross Road  (Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins)
Love Affair  (1939, Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer)
     and its 1957 remake An Affair to Remember  (Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr)
Falling in Love  (Meryl Streep, Robert de Niro)
The Holiday  (Kate Winslet, Cameron Diaz)
Love Story  (Ryan O'Neal, Ali MacGraw)
You've Got Mail
Love, Actually
Christmas in Connecticut  (Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan)
Holiday Affair  (Janet Leigh, Robert Mitchum)
Never Say Goodbye  (Errol Flynn, Eleanor Parker)
A Christmas Carol  (just about any version)
The Tangerine Bear  (animated - David Hyde Pierce voices the Cuckoo)

For something emphatically religious, and therefore most truly about Christmas:
The Nativity Story

My Favorite Summer Viewing

Most film lovers I know have seasonal favorites, films they love to watch at certain times of the year. For instance, every Advent one of my sisters likes to pull out all her Christmas-y DVDs, set them to one side, and watch one each evening. Another of my sisters DVRs all the Hallmark Channel Christmas movies.

Now that summer looms its heavy, humid head over us, I reckon it's time to pull out my favorite films and mini-series and be carried away to a cooler, more pleasant place, both geographically and spiritually.

Let's start with the film that's actually named for the season: David Lean's romantic Summertime, starring Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi. A 40-something spinster finding love while on vacation in Venice, beautiful cinematography, heroine leaning out of the train window and waving goodbye ... <*sigh*> The entire movie has been posted on YouTube, but here is just a snippet:

For years, I loved the Disney version of Pollyanna with Hayley Mills. Then I discovered the 2002 BBC version and fell in love with it. I didn't fall out of love altogether with the Disney version and all its slick, over-produced cuteness, but I now prefer this one by far.

No summer would be complete for me without a viewing of Wonderworks' incomparable Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. (Anne of Avonlea is now marketed as Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel.) Seldom have I seen such a perfect combination of screenplay, cast, location, and cinematography -- and the musical score is absolutely heart-stirring. However, after just one viewing of Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story and Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, I have since steered clear of them—they're ridiculous, and are not taken from the books. I'll just stick to the original first two, thank you!

Maybe Enchanted April is technically a spring movie, but the general idea of getting away from miserable weather to a more congenial climate works in any season. This film is one of my top ten favorites of all time. And if you haven't read the novel of the same name by Elizabeth von Arnim, I can't recommend it enough.

One of my top five favorite mini-series is The House of Eliott. It's about two orphaned young Englishwomen in the 1920's who find themselves in dire straits and start their own couture house. The story is compelling, the script quite good for the most part; but the costumes are the real draw! At the end of the first series (twelve episodes), the Eliott girls stage their first fashion show, and the gowns are stunning. The second series is just as good, but the third (which is only six episodes) is negligible.

 

 

Way back in the late '6os the BBC graced PBS with a superlative adaptation of John Galsworthy's classic triptych The Forsyte Saga. It starred Eric Porter as the definitive Soames Forsyte, one of the most complex anti-heroes in English literature, Nyree Dawn Porter (no relation) as the long-suffering Irene, and, in later episodes, Susan Hampshire as Soames' self-absorbed daughter, Fleur (Hampshire won an Emmy® for her portrayal). When The Forsyte Saga aired (1967 in the UK, 1971 in the US), it created every bit as much public stir and ardent viewer devotion as Downton Abbey has in our time. Granada Television did their own adaptation for ITV in 2002 starring Damian Lewis as Soames, but their version pales in comparison, despite its technicolor and sumptuous production values. The acting and casting in the original BBC production simply can't be beat.

  

And of course, I can't leave out the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. Summer wouldn't be summer without an eyeful of Colin Firth in that wet shirt! (Which is nowhere in the novel; but who cares?!)