' ' Cinema Romantico: A Word About Tradition

Thursday, December 07, 2006

A Word About Tradition

Traditions are oh so important, no matter how strange they may seem. For instance, every year in the first week of January I request to take off the third Thursday of March. Why? This is the first day of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and making people work it is an unquestioned crime against humanity. It's my tradition and it's vital to my existence.

But we all have traditions, and I've noticed this is especially true concerning movies and concerning movies around the holidays. Director Daryl A. Moon (recent winner of the Saginaw Valley Bed & Breakfast International Film Festival) advised me last night he makes a point to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" each Christmas. This may seem obvious but when you consider Mr. Moon's cinematic inspirations are Paul Verhoeven and "Twins", I think it says a lot. My best friend Jacob has noted it does not feel like Christmas without watching "Die Hard". A person with whom I once worked had a family custom of viewing "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" every December 24th.

I too have holiday traditions. My own Christmas is not complete without watching "Serendipity". Each Thanksgiving (as I have written before) I indulge in one of my all-time Top 5 favorite movies "The Myth of Fingerprints".

So what I want to know, people, is this - what are your traditions? What do you watch? And when do you watch them? And why? Everyone, leave a comment. I'm interested. Really.

3 comments:

Wretched Genius said...

Am I the person you used to work with who watches "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" with his family every year? Because if I'm not, feel free to say you have 2 people who do that.

Anonymous said...

Every Christmas, I give my dad the same copy of "Citizen Kane" but try to find different ways to wrap it so he doesn't realize what it is. Wait. Did I say "Citizen Kane?" I meant "Blade."

Anonymous said...

In regards to "wretched genius", I actually was referring to a different co-worker from a different job but upon reading your entry I believe I do also recall you saying that at one point. So perhaps "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" is our nation's most popular cinematic tradition.