They showed this 50's English movie every year on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) at Christmas until this year (2023). I ordered as I love watching this movie at Christmas. At first it would not play on our older Samsung Blu Ray player. I was disappointed but we tried playing on our newer Samsung Blu Ray and it played perfectly?? Presto, hence I guess some of the more negative reviews must have older Blu Ray players. Excellent movie in my humble opinion!!
5つ星のうち5.0A sentimental Christmas movie that's about a minister and his grown children
2023年10月31日にアメリカ合衆国でレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
Not everyone will like this movie. No violence. No spectacle. Set in 1948 (made in black and white in 1952), it's about a minister in post war England whose children are returning for a Christmas celebration. I saw the movie back in the 1980's several Christmases running on public television. Then it disappeared, and DVDs or VHS versions were unavailable. This Blu-ray version plays perfectly. Whenever I thought about it over the years, I would find myself tearing up, seeing it again brought tears, and as I sit here writing this review at 79 years of age find myself getting a little teary all over again. If I had gone into the ministry, the Episcopal priest is the kind of minister I would have liked to have been. Or more precisely the kind of minister he wanted to be is the kind I would have wanted to be. Despite the film's age, the human problems faced by his children are still relevant. But as I indicated in the beginning some may just find this movie dull. But I loved it when I first saw it, and I still love it today. The only thing I found discordant in the picture was the hand cranked car. Even though I grew up as a war baby, that is something I never ever saw.
Well, I'd never seen this - but I'm delighted to say that the gap has now been filled. For all those who think that the ultimate Christmas films are IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and WHITE CHRISTMAS, take a look at this remarkable and uplifting tale of a country parson, and revel in the sheer quality of the writing, the directing, and the superlative performances from a five-star cast.
The script is faithfully and carefully distilled from a successful stage play of the 1950s - but the adaptation has none of that cardboard quality that is sometimes a pitfall of putting theatre onto the screen.
Celia Johnson, Ralph Richardson, Margaret Leighton, a young Denholm Elliott, and a supporting cast of remarkable talent unfold this bittersweet but ultimately joyous story set in the claustrophobic confines of a country vicarage.
The bells ring for Christmas, the carol singers trill, the goose is basted - and the world is bathed in white and silence. On the surface all is love and goodwill, but relations between the vicar and his grown-up children are stretched to breaking-point. Two sisters and a younger brother are convinced that their father cannot or will not understand their very different needs and wants, and they in turn have made little or no attempt to allow for the sacrifices that have to be made by someone with a calling to the priesthood.
Distressing little domestic incidents occur during the course of an evening - incidents which trigger major changes within the family, bringing out the weaknesses and ultimate strengths of each of the players in turn.
There is a remarkable scene (which for me makes the film worth every penny of its reasonable price) in which Celia Johnson and Margaret Leighton - the vicar's daughters - do nothing more complex than wash up the supper things.
These two sisters with such very different lifestyles talk to each other, probably for the first time in their lives - and there is an almost tangible void between them.
As the void begins to close, surprising and unhappy details of their lives emerge, details that are shocking for the period of the film, and the scene is played for all it's worth in a single very lengthy shot, with no action more vigorous than the drying of a plate or the rinsing of a cup. It's riveting stuff. The immaculate timing and perfectly clipped English of these two extraordinary actresses serve only to emphasise the poignancy of the whole situation, and the viewer can't help but be moved to tears by it.
(Young actors wanting to play 'period' roles should study work like this very carefully. They seldom manage anything half so good, and could learn an enormous amount about manner, movement - and diction.)
THE HOLLY AND THE IVY is justifiably a classic - though perhaps not as famous as it should be. This lovely release on DVD should go some way towards remedying that.
It's not just a film for Christmas: like Shakespeare, it's for all time - and you can't say fairer than that.
5つ星のうち5.0A beautiful little film, rarely shown on tv at Christmas
2020年2月11日にカナダでレビュー済み
Amazonで購入
I was searching for years for this film and finally Amazon carries it. It used to be shown on tv during Christmas, but the license must have expired because it is never seen in tv now. When I saw it here, I had to buy it. It's an old fashioned Christmas story, about a Vicar in a small English village who serves his parish but unaware that own adult children are in trouble. Full of character actors and, of course, Sir Ralph Richardson, and Celia Johnson of Brief Encounter fame. She didn't do alot of films, mostly theatre, but Brief Encounter, and The Best Years of Our Lives, are wonderful for that old British way of life movie tone. (Fun fact: Celia Johnson was married to Peter Fleming, brother of Ian Fleming who wrote the James Bond character.) All the character actors are terrific in this beautiful little movie.