Sennett: Alternative holiday movies
Every Christmas, the television airwaves are filled with trash. The occasional Christmas film is appreciated, but this superficial theme can only go so far. While Hallmark or Lifetime tries to cram hundreds of Christmas-themed “movies” down our throats every year, we become more and more desensitized.
I get that Christmas can be capitalized as a corporate holiday, but it also needs to be remembered that it is a symbol of family tradition. It is a time of unity and ritual. Seeing familiar images on the screen is extremely comforting. Yet, year after year, the movies seem to have less of an emotional impact, less centered on rituals and centered more on superficial ideas. These Christmas movies have become its own genre of film. And it is a dangerous genre because — they border on the thin line between tradition and a series of emotionless images glittering in green and red.
What the holidays often lack for some of us (including me) is a dash of new adventure. Do you remember last Christmas? Can you distinguish it from two Christmases ago? I can’t. While tradition should always have a place, watching something new can be valuable — especially over the holidays.
New experiences can easily come from foreign films. It is hard for some people to get past subtitles, but rarely do I hear college students regretting the decision to watch a foreign film. In college, Netflix binge-watching is extremely popular. The television series is almost replacing cinema in popularity. Of course, TV has always been a threat to film, but now the Internet has been thrown into the equation. This does not mean all hope is lost in good-quality, emotion-filled Christmas films. A great foreign television mini-series is perfect for Christmas.
Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander” is available on Hulu right now. This is an addicting series, and it is centered around the tradition of Christmas. “Fanny and Alexander” could be a new experience for the college viewer, or even a new Christmas viewing tradition.
To go a step further would be to completely take a holiday from Christmas for a couple of hours, and treat yourself to some beautifully poetic and captivating film series. Satyajit Ray’s “Apu Trilogy,” “Pather Panchali,” “Aparajito,” and “Apur Sansar” is just on time to engorge on these treats. This film series follows the life of Apu. Beginning with his boyhood in a rural village, and cinematically traveling through his adulthood in larger cities through the three films. Apu experiences the natural beauty of love and death. Relationships blossom, then whither. Apu seems plagued with death, but in the end even that is transformed into a blessing. These Bengali films are milestones in film history. They were also thought to be lost, after a tragic fire destroyed the original camera negatives. Until this year, the “Apu Trilogy” was only available in rough condition with awkward subtitles. Now, the original negatives have been hydrated and restored by the Criterion Collection using cutting-edge digital technology.
I certainly enjoy a few conventional American holiday films. “We’re No Angels” is a wonderful film in the Christmas genre. While holiday streaming has become so easy in our lives, especially in college, it could be a nightmare for cinema. This year, though, America has been treated to a very redeeming and important cinematic restoration. With films like the “Apu Trilogy” and “Fanny and Alexander” at our fingertips, cinema can still strive, or even flourish over the holidays. It is a simple challenge I ask of my readers. Watch one film you have never seen over Christmas. One viewing of the “Apu Trilogy” could restore the love and emotion to the holiday film, and it’s not even about Christmas — it’s just good timing.
Evan Sennett is a first-year majoring in film studies, and he is also an IC cartoonist.
