New Year's, it is in other countries (except for the Gulf countries) Christmas, cinema is a separate genre. From the point of view of Bill Murray's character in Scrooged, this is what will get people to sit in front of the TV and raise advertising rates for the tycoons. And also, from a normal, human point of view, something that will unite the family for the holidays, comfort the lonely, cheer up the company and somehow pass through the whole life as a good memory and even a habit.

Actually, what we have just described fits well into the concept of endless popular love for the evergreen painting "The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath". It is interesting, of course, how it is perceived by new generations - I think more and more jokes are passing deafeningly, and it is slowly turning into the category of “films for grandmothers”. I don’t know, with my grandchildren I usually watch something from “The Housekeepers at Yevgeny Margulis's” on New Year's Eve: rock and roll unites generations better than cinema. Though...

It was clear that very few people remember about Carnival Night, but this is also one of the few real New Year's films made in the USSR. But a holy place is never empty, so we got "The Irony of Fate - 2" (2007) with wonderful artists and a strange performance. But Timur Bekmambetov became the main supplier of New Year's content in Russian cinema. Because "Yolki" is also his. And then “Yolki 2” (2011), “Yolki 3” (2013), “Yolki 1914” (2014) and so on. Previously, the actors had a sickly salary increase - "Christmas trees", that is, work on holidays: "Hello, what Hollywood, I have Christmas trees!" Now these are not just "Yolki", but "Yolki". With which we congratulate Ivan Andreevich Urgant. And in fact, in reality, Russian cinema is diligently working out the "date": in fact, there are many New Year's films, and they are of different quality.And whether you remember them or not - these are questions for the manufacturers.

Traditional international products are also not badly entrenched in the local consciousness.

At the same time, Christmas and New Year's cinema has long been working out completely different data - from romantic comedy to action films and horror.

Say, 1988's Die Hard, directed by John McTiernan and Bruce Willis, is it a classic blockbuster action movie or a Christmas movie?

And then and then at the same time.

And for those who do not understand - in the credits, the ancient singer Vaughn Monroe and his orchestra will sing Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow ...

The main thing is that the action allows you to put the tree in the frame and that Jingle Bells and other classics sound at least distantly. And during the development of pop culture, special Christmas hits have been written and recorded in tons. From those "Bells" to "Do They Know It's Christmas?" the British rock stars' collective and all the way to Slade's "Good Christmas Everybody" (probably the coolest Christmas song ever).

And in Christmas movies, it's not a fact that Americans are leading the way. Because, for example, there is "Love Actually" (Love Actually, 2003) by Briton Richard Curtis - a real modern tale about a prime minister (Hugh Grant) who fell in love with an ordinary girl, and about a writer (Colin Firth) who is experiencing a tragedy on the love front. This is pretty sweet, if you do not think about the class nature of British society, which shows through there from all the cracks. And the main thing is not to confuse it with another film with Hugh Grant, “Four Weddings and One Funeral”. Spoiler: True Love has trees in the frame.

I don’t know if it’s worth admitting, but I loved the Christmas specials of Dr Who - they are little TV masterpieces, regardless of who played the Doctor.

And even this year, something like that will be shown, despite the complete disaster with the Woman Doctor and obsessive leftist propaganda within the series.

In principle, we could have canceled the Christmas Special, because Christmas can offend someone greatly, and it's time to end it too.

British film "Millions" (Millions, 2004) with James Nesbitt, few people know, but nevertheless he

It is one of the best holiday films. And don't be confused that it starts with summer landscapes. Of the newest - "Father Christmas is Back" (2021) with Elizabeth Hurley and "montypython" John Cleese in the roles. Actually, there is a separate demand from the British, because it was Charles Dickens, one might say, the founder of the genre with his "Christmas Carol" in 1843. And according to Dickens, there are a lot of direct adaptations - this is a miniseries directed by Nick Murphy (2019), and films by Robert Zemeckis (2009), Clive Donner (1984), etc. And not all of them are cute, because Ebenezer Scrooge is a tragic figure and the events in the narrative are pretty scary. But the image of Scrooge and even his name, which has become a household name, are present in completely different pictures, referring us to Dickens, or they simply live on their own, like in Disney.But my choice is Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988) with Rowan Atkinson, who is known to the public as Mr. Bean. And, of course, a Muppet Christmas Carol.

The Dickensian theme lives on even in Richard Donner's A New Christmas Tale (Scrooged, 1988), which constantly refers us to the story of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Only about corporate culture on television.

Bill Murray is beautiful as always, and the stage where the great Miles Davis plays on the street for donations lasts literally a minute, but it makes my evening.

Murray's hero throws him angrily: "You will at least learn to hit the notes first."

Scenes of corporate parties can now bring members of the disgusting woke-Komsomol to heart attacks.

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Surprisingly, Gremlins (1984) is also a Christmas movie. And Joe Dante put his hand to him, who with Richard Donner became famous both for the "Police Platoon" and "Tales from the Crypt." And even Steven Spielberg. Screenplay by Chris Columbus, who brought us yet another Christmas film as director, Home Alone (1990). The forever young Macaulay Culkin remained the performer of the role of the boy. Many critics even managed to scold him - exactly until the moment when it became clear that with a budget of 18 million, he collected almost half a billion. This is what I understand - a Christmas story.

The preeminent storyteller of our time, Tim Burton, has made three Christmas films. One is Edward Scissorhands (1990). The main character was invented by the writer Caroline Thompson, on which her contribution to world culture ended. Johnny Depp, apparently because of the heavy makeup, looks like a decent actor here. And the whole image of the main character Burton blinded from the image of the leader of the group The Cure Robert Smith, having provided him with scissors instead of fingers. A touching story that a grandmother tells her granddaughter when asked where the snow comes from. The director's special visual talent turns each film into an art manifesto. Perhaps in Burton's second Christmas film, Batman Returns (1992), it was a little limited by the original comic book style, but the gothic atmosphere does not prevent the film from being exactly Christmas.Plus Danny DeVito and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Burton's full-length animated film Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) is also Gothic.

But it is paradoxical, beautifully drawn and, in general, a classic of the genre.

And yes, it's a musical.

From the classic fairy tales, which for us did not have time to become classics - with How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) you can get your dose of Christmas mood.

Although Jim Carrey can turn our idea of ​​the holiday upside down.

But of course Arnie Schwarzenegger in Jingle All the Way (1996) is even scarier.

If you have not yet figured out what fashionable - the most fashionable - toy to give your child on NG, it is better not to watch this film with the whole family.

And then questions like "Dad, will you give a PlayStation 5?"

(or whatever we have in vogue this season).

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For the paradoxical and the unconventional, there are also Christmas movies.

One of them is Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) with Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer.

He might also have liked a non-binary, but it clearly states that when men kiss is unnatural.

Yes, there were times in Hollywood.

In my opinion, this is the only Christmas film noir style.

But there is also a Christmas horror movie - Anna and the Apocalipse (2017).

This is a British film based on the very successful short film "Zombies", which was also awarded a BAFTA.

True, the most horror thing about him is that he is a musical.

Of course, the picture is incomplete, but at least a week before the New Year you will have something to see.

Tune in for a miracle.

And a miracle, as this genre teaches us, can always happen.

And as one traumatized black kid from Scrooged said, "God bless us."

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.