Check this out.
I'm not sure what would happen if there were no Christmas specials on tv
and no Christmas music in the malls.
Check out this picture on the adbusters.org site. It's hilarious.
Aaron
-----Original Message-----
From: Film-Philosophy Salon [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Ruth Chandler
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2001 11:37 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Christmas on the telly
Hi Henry,
It's an interesting phenomena. My best guess is that Xmas, generally,
having been evacuated of religious meaning by mots participants requires
flat repetition as a kind of reterritoralisation of ritual, something
that masks the celebration of consumerism of Xmas in nostalgic images.
This can be comforting and irritating at the same time, a kind of
mourning and melancholia versus boredom. However, the flat repetition of
boredom also serves a function. The Uk has its 'repeated classics', the
wizard of oz, for example, which I doubt many people watch, but all
participate in creating a mass rush to watch the other side in the
comforting knowledge that the chocolate box 'place' of Xmas is still
really there. Avoidance of some regularly repeated images contributes,
ironically, to Xmas, as an increasingly spectacular event. It would be
interesting to run an experiment one year and show all new films and
follow up with some survey of how many people felt pleased or
disappointed re!
garding a 'really' Xmas atmosphere. One has to assume some people do
think of Xmas as real although I don't actually know any.
Happy New Year
Ruth.C
>>> "Henry.Bacon" <[log in to unmask]> 12/08 5:27 pm >>>
Finnish television has been sending Capra's It's a Wonderful Life every
Christmas for something like over a decade. There are also a couple of
cartoons
more or less related to Christmas that appear to be a "must" in the
programming
on 24. or 25 December - to the mild irritation of some parents, it
appears.
Now I have been approached by the press to explain why this should be
so. I
can't think of much else than frightfully obvious answers (it gives
comfort to
children and like minded to go through the same thing again and again as
a part
of a seasonal ritual, regular items make programming easier etc.). I was
also
asked whether this or some other films belong to Christmas in other
countries.
Could you please help me with this? Also, if you have any more though
out ideas
why this sort of thing goes on (and on), I would appreciate if you could
share
them.
Henry Bacon
Finnish Film Archive
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