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Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

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    Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

    Taking a look at this 'top 100' of Christmas films, it seems that there's barely anything on there that isn't American and isn't Hollywood. Now, one possible explanation for this is that, as Christmas has become more and more about consumption, it's inevitable that Hollywood will reinforce that particular 'message'. Sure, a lot of the Hollywood ones seem to promote love and family, but it's often packaged in a such a 'schmaltzy', formulaic way as to be nauseating, frankly.

    But what are the great non-Hollywood and non-American Christmas films (if indeed there are any)? Are there any Christmas films that could be described as non-conformist or even anti-consumption?

    #2
    Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

    Not great, but still very popular in France, 30+ years after it was made: Le père Noël est une ordure.

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      #3
      Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

      I'm not sure that most Christmas films are "pro-consumption" are they? They tend to be intensely and often sappily sentimental films about generosity and not being so greedy, don't they? From A Christmas Carol onwards, that's the overriding message in most of them. Even the crappy modern conveyor belt of Hollywood Christmas "comedies" tend to end up with that coating of moral homily.

      Non-conformist? That's trickier

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        #4
        Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

        ad hoc wrote: Non-conformist? That's trickier
        Bad Santa?

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          #5
          Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

          Oh, God, that's a loathsome trend....the Bad movie naming.

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            #6
            Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

            For some reason I associate The Sound of Music with the Christmas season. It's really not, although Favourite Things sounds like a wintery song.

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              #7
              Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

              But what are the great non-Hollywood and non-American Christmas films (if indeed there are any)?
              Rare Exports isn't truly great, but it's a lot of fun.

              Brazil

              In Bruges

              Does The Nightmare Before Christmas count as not Hollywood? The aforementioned Bad Santa?

              Does Dekalog count as a/several movie(s)?

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                #8
                Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                Does The Snowman count? It's wintry, can't remember how specifically Christmassy though.

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                  #9
                  Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                  A Christmas Carol? (you can pick a non-Hollywood version)

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                    #10
                    Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                    Oh, and I'm not sure if it's technically set at Christmas, but Force Majeure is fantastic and it's snowy, so I reckon it counts.

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                      #11
                      Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                      Christmas movies are made to be shown over and over on TV around Christmas. That's something that Hollywood knows how to do very well. Christmas movies are very often made for kids - because it's a time kids are out of school and available to go see films or watch them on TV - plus the mythology around Christmas has been kid-oriented long-before it became "commercialized" - and kid-movies are another thing Hollywood knows how to do, or at least does a lot of.

                      Incidentally, perhaps the most beloved Christmas movie of all time - at least where I'm from - isn't actually a Christmas movie. It's A Wonderful Life came out in the summer, as I recall reading. The ending is around Christmas and there's a strong message of gratefulness and quasi-Christianity that fits in well, but most of it isn't about Christmas. It's regarded as sappy, but it's actually a bit dark and says a lot about American 20th century culture, blah blah blah. I hope to go see it again this year when they play it at our public theater. It's great on the big screen.

                      TBS shows A Christmas Story for 24 hours straight. Excellent.

                      Christmas is a time to remember - hopefully good memories - from one's own life or one's family or community. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is getting a gift wrapped in a box that came from a department store that hasn't been in business under that name in 30 years. And then preserving that box for gifting again. Likewise, some of our family Christmas ornaments are stored wrapped up in newspaper, so I like to read the bits of newspaper and read high school basketball scores, or whatever, from 1981.

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                        #12
                        Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                        Crusoe wrote: Does The Snowman count? It's wintry, can't remember how specifically Christmassy though.
                        Yes it is. They fly to the frozen North for the party and Dance of the Snowmen, where they meet Father Christmas. He gives the boy a scarf.

                        Then at the end when the boy sees the melted Snowman he goes back to his room and finds the scarf, confirming it was not a dream.

                        Which makes it even more of a hammer blow of course.

                        They key thing is to follow up with the book Father Christmas by Briggs. In it, the big man goes to the party. He sees the same Snowman and boy but says 'James, good to see you again!' which suggests that the boy rebuilds the same Snowman every winter - a tradition continued by the second boy in TSMATSD: the dog is made flesh, but the Snowman is immortal.

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                          #13
                          Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                          evilC wrote: Taking a look at this 'top 100' of Christmas films, it seems that there's barely anything on there that isn't American and isn't Hollywood. Now, one possible explanation for this is that, as Christmas has become more and more about consumption, it's inevitable that Hollywood will reinforce that particular 'message'.
                          Isn't a more obvious explanation that this list is from an American website?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                            And further to the above, I'd forgotten that Briggs' Father Christmas had been animated as well. The bit I mentioned is here - very necessary if you get any tears from little ones at the end of The Snowman.

                            He did a Kit-Kat advert too.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                              Incidentally, perhaps the most beloved Christmas movie of all time - at least where I'm from - isn't actually a Christmas movie. It's A Wonderful Life came out in the summer, as I recall reading.

                              It was actually released on December 21 1946, but only in New York City. It went on general release on January 7 1947. Which is probably a worse time to release a Christmas movie than mid-Summer. Back in the forties and fifties, studio marketing departments tended not to plan releases as specifically as they do today. Miracle on34th Street, for example was released in May, because Darryl Zanuck reckoned more people went to movies in warm weather (because of the air conditioning.) In the original publicity the film's Christmas theme was omitted, or downplayed.

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                                #16
                                Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                That list contains 98 films, with a mysterious numbering gap where 81 and 82 would be.

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                                  #17
                                  Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                  Fussbudget wrote:
                                  Originally posted by evilC
                                  Taking a look at this 'top 100' of Christmas films, it seems that there's barely anything on there that isn't American and isn't Hollywood. Now, one possible explanation for this is that, as Christmas has become more and more about consumption, it's inevitable that Hollywood will reinforce that particular 'message'.
                                  Isn't a more obvious explanation that this list is from an American website?
                                  Nope. I looked at a UK website first, but it featured less films in total, yet illustrated even more of a Hollywood bias. Thus, I looked for one with a higher number of films, to see if this bias persisted. The one I linked to has more films, but actually slightly *less* of a Hollywood bias, believe it or not.

                                  Maybe I should have tried looking on (for instance) French, Swedish or Russian sites (where my language limitation might not have turned up many results of any kind)?

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                    Evariste Euler Gauss wrote: That list contains 98 films, with a mysterious numbering gap where 81 and 82 would be.
                                    I hadn't noticed that! I'm going to look again. Weird, if so!

                                    edit: Damn! You're right. I wonder what happened there, then? Maybe they used some content without permission and had to remove it, with the proximity of the entries being coincidental?

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                      I imagine that the thing is that Christmas films are almost all about family friendly schmalz. And Hollywood does sickly schmalz well.

                                      Non-Hollywood cinema almost always does well by being different to Hollywood rather than by mimicking it, which means you tend to get more intellectual, more offbeat, more black and so on from non-Hollywood. And those things aren't really what people want in the mawkishly sentimental Christmas season.

                                      Anyway, number 8 on this list is interesting to me: A Christmas Story. I was totally unaware of the existence of this film until I got to the US, but now I'm here it seems to be almost as much an integral part of Christmas in the US is as the Queens Speech is in the UK. People might not watch it or care about it, but it's become part of a deep tradition.

                                      So, what I wonder is - am I unaware of it because I was in a cultural bubble; Or is it as unknown in Britain as I think it is?

                                      (I've still not seen it, and literally all I know about its content is that it has a kid wearing glasses).

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                                        #20
                                        Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                        I'd not seen it or heard of it, either.

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                                          #21
                                          Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                          Time Out also constructed a list. I'm intrigued by 'Joyeux Noel', as I haven't seen it.

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                                            #22
                                            Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                            Anyway, number 8 on this list is interesting to me: A Christmas Story. I was totally unaware of the existence of this film until I got to the US, but now I'm here it seems to be almost as much an integral part of Christmas in the US is as the Queens Speech is in the UK. People might not watch it or care about it, but it's become part of a deep tradition.

                                            So, what I wonder is - am I unaware of it because I was in a cultural bubble; Or is it as unknown in Britain as I think it is?


                                            It's actually a very nice little flick. Not at all schmaltzy, and very well written and cast. It was written by Jean Shepherd, who wrote for the New Yorker for many years. It's based on a couple of his autobiographical short stories, and he's also the film's narrator. If you haven't seen it you're in for a small treat.

                                            People do watch it every year. My gym guy, Richie (26) does so with his parents and grandparents. He even bought his dad a "leg lamp"* off eBay a couple of Christmases ago.

                                            *Too much of a spoiler to describe further.

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                                              #23
                                              Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                              evilC wrote: Nope. I looked at a UK website first, but it featured less films in total, yet illustrated even more of a Hollywood bias. Thus, I looked for one with a higher number of films, to see if this bias persisted. The one I linked to has more films, but actually slightly *less* of a Hollywood bias, believe it or not.

                                              Maybe I should have tried looking on (for instance) French, Swedish or Russian sites (where my language limitation might not have turned up many results of any kind)?
                                              Maybe. For all we know there is a wealth of non-English-language films about Christmas out there, I genuinely have no idea. I'd like to think the Scandinavians have it covered, preferably in a totally miserabilist style.

                                              The other question would be whether the Hollywood bias is really specific to Christmas films. If you look for lists of, say, the best movies about teenagers, or even the best sci-fi movies, I would imagine the overwhelming majority of the films mentioned will be American, though the ratio of Hollywood to foreign/independent might vary based on the level of anorak of the website you choose I guess.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                                evilC wrote:
                                                Originally posted by Evariste Euler Gauss
                                                That list contains 98 films, with a mysterious numbering gap where 81 and 82 would be.
                                                I hadn't noticed that! I'm going to look again. Weird, if so!

                                                edit: Damn! You're right. I wonder what happened there, then? Maybe they used some content without permission and had to remove it, with the proximity of the entries being coincidental?
                                                Nothing so cool. They used numbers 86 and 87 twice.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Why does Hollywood own Christmas?

                                                  It was actually released on December 21 1946, but only in New York City. It went on general release on January 7 1947. Which is probably a worse time to release a Christmas movie than mid-Summer. Back in the forties and fifties, studio marketing departments tended not to plan releases as specifically as they do today. Miracle on34th Street, for example was released in May, because Darryl Zanuck reckoned more people went to movies in warm weather (because of the air conditioning.) In the original publicity the film's Christmas theme was omitted, or downplayed.
                                                  Ah. I'm mixing the two films up.

                                                  Still, January isn't a good idea.

                                                  Not sure how one could "downplay" the Christmas themes of Miracle on 34th Street. The whole thing is about Santa Claus.

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