Christmas Movie #1: White Christmas

To give the first movie a sense of event I decided to watch it at midnight. However, a delicious fruit salad preparation delayed me so 12:20 was the eventual time. Fascinating insight into my life.

I only saw 'White Christmas' for the first time last year and I wish I'd seen it sooner. It's certainly a good way to start a geeky marathon like this. 

The plot has Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye (essentially playing the same role from 'Singin In The Rain', but that's no bad thing) as a double act who, along with a up and coming Sister Act, help their former Army general make enough money to save his hotel.

Really the plot is just there to justify the song and dance numbers. The weird thing about 'White Christmas' is, despite being set a Christmas, and having the title song sung in the film, twice, the rest of the songs actually have no Christmas theme. 

This is probably because the film was made as a spin-off from the song. I just think it's a shame we never got 'Fairytale of New York: The Movie".

But the film is so great because it has so much charm. Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye have great chemistry with each other and with Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Allen as the sisters. Also some of the songs are truly underrated, such as 'Sisters' and 'Count Your Blessings Instead Of Sheep'.

The only thing I could live without is the constant ramming down your throat of how great the Army is. I have no problem with a film honoring the military but this almost morphs into a recruitment film by the end. I'm surprised it doesn't end with a screen instructing where to sign up.

But the film ends with a room full of people singing White Christmas. So, you know, I feel a bit gooey inside now.

Roll on Day 2.

Introduction

Introduction

My name's Alex, I'm twenty six and I love Christmas.

In today's cynical, cynical world (of which I'm often a member), it's sometimes hard to be an out and proud fan of old Saint Nick.

But every year, I put all my worldly problems to the back of mind for a while and just enjoy the build up to"the most wonderful time of the year" inc.

The actual day (25th December for the uninitiated), usually equates to present sharing, a bloated feeling and a death in Eastenders, but still I love it.

But it does seem, as I get older, that more and more people around me want to stem my excitement of the festive period. When someone tells me they leave their Christmas shopping until the 24th December (Christmas Eve, you're really learning something from this blog), I want to admire their gall, but I just think they're missing out on the joy of making lists, budgets and pie charts to plan their present buying (I have a bizarre sense of joy as this prolonged introduction will eventually reveal). And somewhere around my early twenties a rule was slipped in about not mentioning Christmas until December. Listen, if I wanna play Slade and dress like an elf on 22nd October, I have a right to do so without disapproving looks.

So, what to do?

Except impending old age and inevitable death and only find joy in videos of confused animals on YouTube? Well. Yes. I plan to do those things, but that doesn't mean I can't still enjoy Yuletide.

So rather than do the adult things I should be doing (whatever they are, carpentry?), I've decided to devise a challenge to test my Christmas spirit.

I will watch 21 Christmas over 21 days.

It could have an even 20 but I'm indecisive. Or am I?

I actually came up with this idea around March, but if you mention Christmas to anyone around that time it creates a wormhole in space.

So I've had to wait till now to let this idea loose on the world.

The rules of this 'challenge' (yes, those quotation marks are ironic) are:

• one film per day
• the film is chosen randomly (I was going to pick the names out of a hat but I don't actually own a decent bowler so instead it's going to be a trainers box that looks like this)

• I will write a short blog about each film

And that's it...

One last thing. I do actually have a life. No I really do. And part of that life is my girlfriend. No seriously, I'm doing this challenge and I have a real flesh and blood girlfriend. And, in a hilarious twist, she doesn't like Christmas. I like to think that this challenge will change her. That a Christmas movie will be made of my efforts and me watching movies will be edited into a montage and it will end with my girlfriend (who wished to remain anonymous so I'll just call her C.Harlotte) tossing tinsel around the room in tears saying "I understand you now!". However, I'm aware of how unlikely this is. So I think I'll just have to settle with her look of pure disdain for the next 21 days....