Time has come to the end of 2024, and we are about to enter a brand new year. Recently, The Guardian and the British Film Institute have invited many well-known filmmakers to recommend some films that they will watch repeatedly during the holidays and talk about why they like them. If you prefer to welcome the new year in a warm home rather than on the crowded winter streets, you might as well choose one or more of these films to accompany you.

【List】

Luna Camon (director, representative work "Treasure House")

Recommended work: Holy Smoke

For me, every year at this time, I feel a kind of sacred atmosphere everywhere, so I often involuntarily start to revisit the movies I watched in my youth: "Song of the Wanderer", "Breaking the Waves", and "Two Lives of Flowers".

I think there is a saying about watching movies according to the season. Kieslowski's films are suitable for watching in winter, and you should start watching them around 5:30 in the afternoon. The same goes for Andrzej Zulawski, who is also suitable for watching in winter, but the time should be later, after nightfall.

Sidney Lumet's films are suitable for watching in autumn; the British New Wave films of the 1960s are also suitable for watching in autumn; and Fassbinder's films are also suitable for watching in autumn.

In contrast, the films of Egyptian director Youssef Chahine exude the scent of summer, American directors Robert Altman and Allison Anders are meant to be seen at night, and Japanese "sun tribe movies" are meant to be seen in the sultry afternoon.

Stills from Holy Smoke

As for this time of year, I always revisit a movie - Jane Campion's Holy Smoke. From Christmas Eve to New Year's Day, this week always makes people feel at a loss, and the movie that best captures this feeling is Holy Smoke.

At this time of year, the old year is about to pass, and it is difficult to make any changes. The new year is waving at you, but you don’t know whether it is hope or worry that is waiting for you. So this becomes a period of time that is neither up nor down, making people feel bored. In these few short days, you will desperately want to do something. It feels like a time bomb is ticking, forcing you to re-understand yourself and discover something new, otherwise the bomb will explode. Watching "Holy Smoke" at this time can give me some kind of comfort. So every year at this time, and it has to be four o'clock in the afternoon, I will choose to watch it again, every year.

Peter Strickland (director, representative works include The Duke of Burgundy and Fabric)

Recommended work: "Notes at the beginning"

Although I was bored as a child because I was forced to sit in church with adults, I still love this holiday. I also like holiday movies such as "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and "Silent Partners", but the movie I want to recommend here is a movie that tramples on all kinds of holiday goodwill - "The Silent Partner".

Stills from "The End Note"

However, although the film has nothing to do with truth, goodness and beauty, strictly speaking, the time background is indeed during Christmas. Christopher Plummer dressed up as Santa Claus to rob a bank, and under the Santa Claus costume, he wore a shocking mesh vest, which was really a vulgar and perverted image. It was really hard for people to associate him with the gentlemanly von Trapp in "The Sound of Music".

The first time I saw it was in the late 1980s. My brother and I secretly turned on the TV in the middle of the night and happened to catch this movie. As a result, our screams woke up my mother, who rushed downstairs to turn off the TV. It was not until more than 20 years later that we watched the rest of the movie in its entirety. I have to admit that my mother had a point because this movie was so scary that it was not suitable for children.

Assena Rahel Tsangari (director, representative works: "New Triangle Relationship" and "Harvest")

Recommended work: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Stills from A Charlie Brown Christmas

For me, nothing is more appropriate for the holidays than A Charlie Brown Christmas. It has all the nostalgic elements you need: Charlie Brown, the legendary idol of our generation, our prince, indecisive and skeptical, but a romantic at heart; Snoopy, the world's most thoughtful dog; and Lucy, the most famous psychiatrist of the 20th century, who, for a nickel, makes Charlie Brown forget all his doubts about the holidays. It also has the best dance number in movie history and the most iconic Christmas tree in the world. It's a musical made for kids, and the voices and songs are all from real kids - that alone is amazing!

Radu Jude (director, representative works include "Bad Luck Sex, Crazy Porn" and "Don't Expect Too Much of the End of the World")

Recommended work: Christmas on Earth

For many years I hated Christmas for a variety of personal reasons, but now that has changed and it is a great time of year to work, I have come to love it and use this uninterrupted time to get as much work as possible.

Stills from Christmas on Earth

In recent Christmases, I watched Don’t Look Up by myself one year because everyone was talking about it, and I watched Joe Dante’s Gremlins with my youngest son the other year because I read about it in the collection Make My Day: Movie Culture in the Age of Reagan by film critic J. Hoberman. I had never seen it before, but I loved it so much that we followed it up with Small Soldiers, which was a masterpiece. Of course, if I had to recommend a holiday movie myself, it would have to be Barbara Rubin’s Christmas on Earth.