It may be the season of cheerful carols and twinkling lights, but the holidays also bring about a melancholy mood that has inspired some of the world’s greatest filmmakers. This selection explores the clashing emotions at the heart of the yuletide spirit, including Jacques Demy’s gorgeous musical romance THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG, Guillermo del Toro’s emotionally captivating fantasy CRONOS, Luis García Berlanga’s stinging satire PLÁCIDO, and Ingmar Bergman’s intimate epic FANNY AND ALEXANDER.
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita • 1946 • Japan
Kinoshita's first film after the end of World War II is a wrenching, superbly wrought tale about a liberal-minded Japanese family torn apart by war and imperialist politics. Morning for the Osone Family is both palpably bitter about the nation's fresh...
Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger • 1947 • United Kingdom
This explosive work about the conflict between the spirit and the flesh is the epitome of the sensuous style of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. A group of nuns, played by some of Britain's finest actresses, includ...
Directed by Luis García Berlanga • 1961 • Spain
In a small Spanish town, a group of old ladies decide to celebrate Christmas Eve with a 'Sit a poor man at your table' dinner: each wealthy household of the town will have a homeless person dining with them that night. The celebrations also include...
Directed by Jacques Demy • 1964 • France
An angelically beautiful Catherine Deneuve was launched to stardom by this dazzling musical heart-tugger from Jacques Demy. She plays an umbrella-shop owner's delicate daughter, glowing with first love for a handsome garage mechanic, played by Nino Castel...
Directed by Eric Rohmer • 1969 • France
In the brilliantly accomplished centerpiece of Rohmer's Moral Tales series, Jean-Louis Trintignant plays Jean-Louis, one of the great conflicted figures of sixties cinema. A pious Catholic engineer in his early thirties, he lives by a strict moral code i...
Directed by Ingmar Bergman • 1982 • Sweden
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden. Ingmar Bergman intended Fanny and Alexander as his swan song, and it is the leg...
Directed by Guillermo del Toro • 1993 • Mexico
Guillermo del Toro made an auspicious and audacious feature debut with Cronos, a highly unorthodox tale about the seductiveness of the idea of immortality. Kindly antiques dealer Jesús Gris (Federico Luppi) happens upon an ancient golden device in...
Directed by Arnaud Desplechin • 2008 • France
In Arnaud Desplechin's beguiling A CHRISTMAS TALE (Un conte de Noël), Catherine Deneuve brings her legendary poise to the role of Junon, matriarch of the troubled Vuillard family, who come together at Christmas after she learns she needs a bone marro...
