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Not Just for Christmas

Advent Calendar Linda Ruth Williams

"There are many ways to have an ethical, green, or sustainable Christmas. If there was one thing you would want people to do every day as well, what would it be?"

"There are many ways to have an ethical, green, or sustainable Christmas. If there was one thing you would want people to do every day as well, what would it be?"

Linda Ruth Williams is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Southampton. Her many books include Critical Desire: Psychoanalysis and the literary subject, The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema, and a major new work (with Michael Hammond) Contemporary American Cinema. Back to the NJfC Advent Calendar	“Each man’s life touches so many other lives” says Clarence the angel to George Bailey in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, a movie which ensures that anyone touched by it will never hear bells in the same way again (“every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings”). George’s great gift is the chance to see how the world would be had he never lived. Through the indulgence of tears which is the film’s final act, George learns that had he not lived - and lived well - others would have lived less well, or not at all. The political contradictions of Capra’s movie have been endlessly debated by film scholars like me ever since its release in 1946, but this simple truth lies at the heart of its enduring reputation as the most loved of Christmas movies. Perhaps this is also its message for ethical living. There is certainly something peculiar about the ‘potlatch’ of gold-giving in the final scene – an unusual spectacle for American cinema. The sight of small-town citizens giving their money away as if it was never theirs in the first place might make even the most sceptical of political readers pause, if briefly. Perhaps I just come over all sentimental at this time of year, and blind myself to the harder discourses running through this film. Perhaps we all just like a good old Christmas wallow. Consume less, except with your eyes! Watch movies instead of going to the shops! Film making, and film viewing, will struggle to be as green as other art-forms, but switch to a green electricity tariff, and watch movies with your friends, and you can be a little more relaxed about the environmental impact. Watch It’s a Wonderful Life (though perhaps not every day – some things are just for Christmas). And hold on to Zuzu’s flower.

Linda Ruth Williams is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Southampton. Her many books include Critical Desire: Psychoanalysis and the literary subject, The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema, and a major new work (with Michael Hammond) Contemporary American Cinema.

Back to the NJfC Advent
Calendar

“Each man’s life touches so many other lives” says Clarence the angel to George Bailey in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, a movie which ensures that anyone touched by it will never hear bells in the same way again (“every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings”). George’s great gift is the chance to see how the world would be had he never lived. Through the indulgence of tears which is the film’s final act, George learns that had he not lived - and lived well - others would have lived less well, or not at all. The political contradictions of Capra’s movie have been endlessly debated by film scholars like me ever since its release in 1946, but this simple truth lies at the heart of its enduring reputation as the most loved of Christmas movies. Perhaps this is also its message for ethical living. There is certainly something peculiar about the ‘potlatch’ of gold-giving in the final scene – an unusual spectacle for American cinema. The sight of small-town citizens giving their money away as if it was never theirs in the first place might make even the most sceptical of political readers pause, if briefly. Perhaps I just come over all sentimental at this time of year, and blind myself to the harder discourses running through this film. Perhaps we all just like a good old Christmas wallow.

Consume less, except with your eyes! Watch movies instead of going to the shops! Film making, and film viewing, will struggle to be as green as other art-forms, but switch to a green electricity tariff, and watch movies with your friends, and you can be a little more relaxed about the environmental impact. Watch It’s a Wonderful Life (though perhaps not every day – some things are just for Christmas). And hold on to Zuzu’s flower.

DamianSutton	Latest page update: made by DamianSutton , Dec 19 2008, 6:59 PM EST (about this update About This Update Moved from: Not Just for Christmas - DamianSutton No content added or deleted. - complete history)
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