Christmas is building momentum and for those who absolutely love it, cinema offers great opportunities to wallow in the sentimental, stoke up your hankie quota and well, just give you that all-round love humanity vibe before the new year rolls in and puts you on a diet.
| Monday Magazine indie film columnist Kathy Kay |
UVic’s Cinecenta has a three-day run Dec. 19-21 of all things snowy with White Christmas, Love Actually and It’s a Wonderful Life. Bing Crosby stars as the love of Rosemary Clooney (George’s aunt) in the 1954 film White Christmas. Clooney was 25 years younger than the Bing – who says #metoo wasn’t needed?
And then there are the films that have nothing to do with Christmas, like Wizard of Oz or Sound of Music (which has just a smidge) and somehow we watch them every year at this time. Is it that we first saw these films with our family, and enjoying them over the holidays allows one to relive the warmth and innocence of youth? The Vic Theatre is bringing both and doing them as singalongs complete with fun prop bags and a costume contests. Seems like it might be a good Christmas after all. (see victoriafilmfestival.com for times and dates)
But for those of you who wouldn’t be caught dead with the sentimental, then there are some strong indie films coming up at Cinecenta about great people, like Tea With the Dames (with the great British actresses including Judi Dench and Maggie Smith); Won’t You be My Neighbour, a warm and loving look at Mr. Rogers; and my favourite Saturday Night Live player, Gilda Radner in the documentary Love, Gilda. (see cinecenta.com for dates and times)
Ho, Ho, Ho!
Kathy Kay is director of the Victoria Film Festival.