In the unlikely event that you need reminding, there are four days left until Christmas. And if you’re still scrabbling around for last-minute gifts, you probably won’t find them in this week’s roster of DVD releases. Perhaps you do have a niche relative who’d be delighted with a personal copy of the scowlingly proficient Scandi-by-numbers thriller The Keeper of Lost Causes (Spirit, 15) or, more commendably, Guillaume Nicloux’s cheerfully tricksy faux-documentary The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq (Studiocanal, 15). Posing the exact scenario stated on the tin, and starring the eminent French writer as himself, it affords him a wicked platform to send up his own personal and literary affectations.
Still, you’re likelier to be perusing more seasoned and/or seasonal viewing options as you foggily digest your Christmas dinner and feign appreciative sips of your aunt’s curdled eggnog, which is where the wonders of streaming really come into their own. Nobody wants for ways to view Love Actually, but what about Arnaud Desplechin’s delicious A Christmas Tale? The single greatest Yule-themed film of the new century, this knotty, Pinot-noir dissection of a dysfunctional French brood reunited for the holidays reveals new pockets of comfort and joy with each new viewing. It’s become as much an annual standard in my household as It’s a Wonderful Life in many others. Curzon Home Cinema, in a fit of Santa-ish generosity, is offering it for a mere two quid.
If you prefer your seasonal viewing a tad less literal, head on over to Mubi, where Luis Buñuel’s eternally subversive The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is among the selections for the month. It may not be especially Christmassy per se, but after a few drinks, the seductive irrationality driving Buñuel’s witty vision of an infinitely interrupted dinner party doesn’t seem a million miles from the chaos of our own family gatherings.
For cosier (and, to a degree, more calendar-appropriate) high-society satire, iTunes has George Cukor’s 1938 version of Holiday – still the under-appreciated acme of golden-era Hollywood romantic comedy. The title ultimately refers not to the New Year’s Eve party at which its two misfit characters (played by a never-lovelier Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant) fall inconveniently in love, but the personal escape they find in each other; it’s the most romantic thing you can watch this Christmas. It’s also an ideal bookend to a more obvious, but no less essential, staple of the season: When Harry Met Sally (again, on iTunes), in which the annual festive cycle (climaxing, of course, with another crucial New Year’s Eve bash) is as poignant a marker as any of a relationship’s bittersweet evolution. I rarely get to 1 January without watching it.
“Won’t somebody please think of the children?” you ask, noting that my selections thus far wouldn’t be especially family-friendly even at less trying times of the year. It may of course be a moot point: for many households, the chances of small-fry surrendering the telly to anything but their Frozen singalong DVDs are on the slim side. Have they seen Bambi, however? Have you, at least recently? One of a handful of Disney titles available on Netflix, it remains the Mouse House’s shimmering crown jewel: as moving and mature a coming-of-age study as any in children’s cinema, it still has the power to enrapture, albeit only for a too-brief 70 minutes. For added distraction, couple it with the immortal 1965 short A Charlie Brown Christmas (on iTunes), a droller but equally affecting tale of community and belonging.
Once the kids are in bed, you needn’t give up the cartoons: back to Netflix, where Don Hertzfeldt’s extraordinary It’s Such a Beautiful Day has recently been added. At first glance, this surreal multimedia portrait of a line-drawn Average Joe slowly losing his grip on reality may seem the least festive film imaginable, but it morphs into something improbably hopeful: a paean to the endurance of memory and family that will contribute at least a pinch of non-denominational spiritualism to your Christmas.
