Movies set at Christmas that are not Christmas movies

one could make a case either way for Die Hard

i'd make a strong case for "it's a wonderful life."

Showgirls is the best example.

... of everything, really.

the apartment

Black Christmas?

Gremlins

Though I guess that could be construed as a Christmas movie

Batman Returns

The film of Porridge, I think. Doubt that it did much business in the US tho.

seemingly every movie made in the '80s.

Home Alone

nobody's fool?

i guess the family-redemption theme is broadly holiday-ish, but it's not really a "christmas movie."

In before Trading Places!

Three Days of the Condor, Eyes Wide Shut.

http://www.geocities.com/aaronbcaldwell/Tradingplaces01.jpg

Home Alone is absolutely a Christmas movie! That's the entire point of the movie!

ummm -- When Harry Met Sally

P2!

wtf is P2?? ij ust looked it up on Yahoo and it sounds fucking hilarious. also look at the critics quotes, as compared with Ebert's. hilarious

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809765386/info

"The only scary part about this is that someone out there might actually love it."

i think that is the best line from a movie review i've ever read

Mitchell, huh? Another MST3K thread?

whoa i forgot that about 'brazil' - really?

i feel like there's gotta be a david lynch movie featuring christmas in the background somewhere

i also feel like this is a real southern california thing
which also might explain why this is a ned thread

whoa i forgot that about 'brazil' - really?

Very much so. The dad who is mistakenly arrested by the government near the start of the film is reading "A Christmas Carol" to his kids, Peter Vaughn's character appears near the end of the film dressed up in a Santa Claus outfit stopping by Jonathan Pryce's cell before going to a Christmas party 'to keep the orphans happy' or something of the sort -- various details like that.

As for it being a me thread -- hm, doubtless!

i only say the mst version but i don't even remember any christmas in mitchell

i will, of course, defer to the guru

There's a NZ film called 'Christmas' set at Christmas which is about extremely "dysfunctional" family gathered together. Kind of an anti-christmas movie I guess. I'm not sure how well it translates beyond a certain NZ audience, it certainly bombed with film festival critics a number if which I'm inclined to think didn't get it.
If you've been part of any "dysfunctional" christmas gatherings and you wanna recognise it in onscreen, you should see it (or not!).
Also *I think* Duane "unknown or illegal user"s sister did set design.

I can't remember any Christmas in Eyes Wide Shut. If only I could forget the rest of it too.

and the director filmed it in his parents house.
regular scenes take place on the toilet.

Cast Away opens (and closes?) on Christmas.

I can't remember any Christmas in Eyes Wide Shut. If only I could forget the rest of it too.

I challenge you to a duel.

The Fabulous Baker Boys, which is set over Christmas and New Year.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

http://www.theflickchicks.com/images/Kiss_Kiss,_Bang_Bang_9.jpg

i will, of course, defer to the guru

Too kind. (It's barely set dressing -- a couple of Christmas trees here and there in John Saxon's mansion and the like -- but prompts a bot quip or two. I'm just amused by its unnecessariness.)

Enemy of the STate

eyes wide shut is a goood call.

miracle on 34th street was released in may, and the studio attempted to downplay the xmas content (despite santa being a main character).

Love, Actually. Or maybe that is a Christmas movie... How do you define a Christmas movie anyway?

Love Actually would ruin my Christmas.

Untamed Heart

I mean, a movie like Bad Sant a does have Christmas as one of its main plot elements, but if a Christmas movie should be a wholesome, feel-good piece of family entertainment, then it hardly qualifies.

(x-post)

I liked Love, Actually. Sometimes the romantic parts were way over the top even for a romantic comedy (the Portuguese part), but this was nicely balanced by the more mundane bits, like the one about the two body doubles. The only part that didn't fit was the one about the Brit guy traveling to the US. That was like from a whole different movie, some male dream-fulfillment sex comedy.

About a Boy has two. One where everything looks normal (shouting, "blended family" awkwardness) and one from romantic comedy fantasy land.

Xpost
Tuomas - Something so offensive happens in Love, Actually early on that my mother and her friends didn't make it past the first 30 minutes. Maybe that's it.

1942

This thread inspired me to watch Eyes Wide Shut again, which despite a few silly moments is easily one of the '90's best films.

And for some reason I never realized this before: there is a Christmas tree in almost every shot in the film, which strangely enough, makes for some good commentary on prostitution.

manchurian candidate

The Poseidon Adventure is New Year's Eve/Day which is near enough dammit. Tho there's probly enough for a 2nd thread on New Year's Eve movies.

haha i meant '1941'. I guess i was mistakenly thinking about the video game

Brazil may be set at Christmas, but that doesn't stop the computer in Info Retrieval displaying "April 1984" halfway through the movie. Oops!!

Diner!

http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/1968/goodfellas6mm5.jpg

I think Female Trouble begins with my favorite xmas scene ever.

I hope posting this clip didn't ruin anyone's x-mas. It made me really happy.

Saw the first half-hour of The Dark is Rising yesterday. That belongs here.

Kramer versus Kramer

In Bruges.

2046

edward scissorhands

Rocky IV.

My Night At Maud's

seemingly every movie made in the '80s.

― s1ocki, Friday, December 21, 2007 11:56 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

GO, a movie which I thought was badass when I was 17

Psycho

meet me in st. louis

Godfather ?

xmas movies/movies with xmas in them kind of rule eh... could u say something about the way the jews of hollywood normatized xmas (wasn't it louis mayer who dumped fake snow on his own lawn) to make themselves more "american"... and how that sort of permanently linked american movies and xmas?

The Thin Man <3

Does Fanny and Alexander count?

Other candidates? New/old favorites?

Chicago Cab

Brazil may be set at Christmas, but that doesn't stop the computer in Info Retrieval displaying "April 1984" halfway through the movie.

In the future, Christmas will be everyday

"every day"

go to bed ste

Does Fanny and Alexander count?

Yes! Christmas frames the movie, much more so than, say, Godfather or Goodfellas.

B-b-but doesn't that mean it doesn't count?

seemingly every movie made in the '80s.

― s1ocki, Friday, December 21, 2007 11:56 PM (7 years ago)

Yes. Just saw two in a row:

Trancers
Night of the Comet

Harry and Tonto

saw two on Sunday:

The Reckless Moment (entirely!)

Carol (the first half or so)

Although Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is listed above, this applies to pretty much every other Shane Black movie as well: Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and Iron Man 3. He seems to really love Christmas.

The Mothman Prophecies

The Poseidon Adventure is really set at New year, but the Christmas tree is a big part of the plot.

via Keyframe:

Writing for the New Republic, Jason Guriel recommends Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report, 1955), “a great, dark Christmas movie, with gorgeous shots of snow-blanketed Munich and the saddest version of ‘Silent Night’ ever recorded.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/125200/orson-welless-forgotten-christmas-classic

Just rewatched Claude Jutra's Mon Oncle Antoine, which gets my vote for best movie set entirely (since Fanny and Alexander was mentioned above) at Christmastime. Its in the Criterion collection, TCM just aired it (albeit at something like 3AM), and Ebert has it on his Great Movies list, so I'm assuming it is at least a little bit well known outside of Canada, where it is routinely considered one of (if not THE) best Canadian film ever.

addams family (1991)
gremlins
tangerine (xmas eve)

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/I/91OagoLtSIL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

addams family (1991)

Only the opening scene is at Christmas, the rest of the film goes through the year to Halloween

gremlins

This is canonically a Christmas movie

The French Connection

Leo McCarey's Good Sam, which kind of plays as a response to It's a Wonderful Life.

I would add Carol to this

this was a good shout

the apartment

― and what, Friday, 21 December 2007 23:10 (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Carol is too

Metropolitan

As long as Carol is mentioned, Eileen too...but that takes rather a different turn.

Ronin

Eyes Wide Shut is showing at my local cinema tomorrow. Very keen to see it

The Metrograph in NYC usually shows the same Christmas screenings every year, and Eyes Wide Shut is one of them. Carol is another, and it's usually Ed Lachmann's own 35mm print. (He's usually there to give a Q&A.)

La Grande Illusion. I have further holiday associations with it because it was the last film shown before the Christmas break in my first-year film class.

Cukor and Grant and Hepburn's Holiday is set over the festive period but isn't really a Christmas movie.

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Lazenby & Rigg blasting through the Christmas market down mountain from Blofeld's lair).

La Grande Illusion. I have further holiday associations with it because it was the last film shown before the Christmas break in my first-year film class.

Great choice - there's even a genuinely moving Christmas scene. Really depressing that the girl, "Lotte," died from the flu in real life. The film wouldn't be released until weeks later, so she never got the chance to see it.

Criterion’s IG reminded of this, but scenes of Christmas figure in a few Terence Davies films.

Comfort and Joy

Wake In Fright

I always mistakenly think that Ghostbusters is set at Christmas, but it just isn't is it. I put it down to both NYC (obv the xmas capital of the universe) and Murray bringing the Scrooged vibe.

Gh.II is however based around New Years Eve, and I don't recall anything Christmassy in it either.

I just watched Lady in the Lake (mentioned on the noir thread) which is set at Christmas for no apparent reason.

MUBI has an "Alternative Christmas Classics" selection at the moment, which includes Brazil, as began this thread, but also American Psycho, which include a scene or scenes (I can't remember precisely now) set at Christmas.