Holiday Cinema: Naughty & Nice

November 26 - December 25

This year AFI Silver's holiday celebration begins at Thanksgiving with a John Hughes classic and continues through the yuletide season with not only some "nice" old favorites like IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and a family-friendly program of Jim Henson's great Christmas entertainments, but also something "naughty" for the grownups: PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES and BAD SANTA. R.I.P. and auld lang syne, Bernie Mac....

AFI Member passes will be accepted at all films in the Holiday Cinema: Naughty & Nice series.

PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES

Written and directed by John Hughes, this holiday road comedy with heart finds traveling advertising executive Steve Martin as a man who just wants to get home to his family in Chicago in time for Thanksgiving dinner. When his plane is grounded in Kansas due to inclement weather, John Candy is the chatty, effusive curtain ring salesman who becomes his mismatched travel companion in the beleaguered effort to get home. Martin and Candy play brilliantly off each other in this underrated comedy classic.

DIR/SCR/PROD John Hughes. US, 1987, color, 93 min. RATED R

Wednesday, November 26, 7:00; Thursday, November 27, 7:00; Friday, November 28, 7:30; Saturday, November 29, 7:30

FANNY AND ALEXANDER
[Fanny och Alexander]
Parts 1 and 2

Ingmar Bergman's valedictory success, a worldwide hit and one of his warmest and most autobiographical works. Six Oscar nominations, winning for Best Foreign Film, Cinematography (the great Sven Nykvist), Art Direction, and Costume Design. In the tour-de-force opening, brother and sister Fanny and Alexander celebrate a splendorous Christmas in 1907 Sweden. However, their fate takes a turn for the worse when their theater-manager father dies and their mother remarries a stern bishop. Escape from his household leads them, by an indirect path, into the life of their secret friend Erland Josephson, an old Jewish antique dealer whose life still has room for the mysticism and magic of an earlier time. "A rich tapestry of childhood memories and moods, fears and fancy, employing all the manners and means of the best of cinematic theatricality from high and low comedy to darkest tragedy" --Keith Keller, Variety. Presented in Digital Format.

DIR/SCR Ingmar Bergman; PROD Jöern Donner. Sweden/France/West Germany, 1983, color, 175 minutes (Part 1) and 150 minutes (Part 2). In Swedish, German, Yiddish and English, with English subtitles. NOT RATED

Part 1:

Friday, November 28, 1:00; Saturday, November 29, 1:00; Sunday, November 30, 1:00

Part 2:

Friday, November 28, 4:20; Saturday, November 29, 4:20; Sunday, November 30, 4:20

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

# 1 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers!

Guardian angel Clarence Goodbody (Henry Travers) saves George Bailey (James Stewart) from a Christmas Eve suicide by showing him how dismal life would have been for his family and friends had he never been born. The all-time Christmas classic may be Frank Capra's finest work.

DIR/SCR/PROD Frank Capra; SCR Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Jo Swerling. US, 1946, b&w, 129 min. NOT RATED

Showing daily, December 12-25

BAD SANTA

Executive produced by Joel and Ethan Coen, this holiday tale finds Billy Bob Thornton as a hard-living department store Santa with a nefarious hidden agenda: each Christmas season, he and his diminutive partner Tony Cox (posing as an elf) target a department store, case the joint and crack the safe. The hilarious Bernie Mac is the mall detective who suspects something is amiss, John Ritter is the store manager who also has his eye on the duo, Lauren Graham is Santa's new 'friend,' and Brett Kelly is a little boy who believes that this bad Santa is the real Santa he's been waiting for.

DIR Terry Zwigoff; SCR Glenn Ficarra, John Requa; PROD Joel Coen, Ethan Coen. US, 2003, color, 91 min. RATED R

Friday, December 12, 9:35; Sunday, December 14, 9:45; Saturday, December 20, 9:30; Sunday, December 21, 8:20; Tuesday, December 23, 9:35

Muppets™, Music & Magic: Jim Henson's Legacy
This series is produced by The Jim Henson Legacy and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Tour Executive Producer Irena Kovarova.

Photography courtesy of The Jim Henson  Company, The Muppets Studio, LLC, and  Sesame Workshop

EMMET OTTER'S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS

This is the heart-warming story of Ma Otter and her son who both secretly enter a talent contest to win money for each other's Christmas presents. The rowdy Riverbottom Gang and their wild hard rock band The Nightmare challenge them. In contrast to the typical Muppet style of puppetry, the loveable river animals are portrayed realistically.

DIR/PROD Jim Henson; SCR Jerry Juhl, based on the book by Lillian and Russell Hoban. USA, 1977, color, 52 min. NOT RATED

PLUS other Muppet Christmas shorts: The Jimmy Dean Show - Rowlf and Jimmy Dean Celebrate Christmas; Perry Como - The Reindeer Sketch; and The Great Santa Claus Switch - The Elves' Song with Art Carney.
Total running time 62 min.

Saturday, December 13, 1:00; Sunday, December 14, 1:00; Monday, December 15, 3:15; Tuesday, December 16, 3:15

Tickets Only $5 for Children Under 12!

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