12 days of not-so-Christmassy Christmas movies

Every December, our stockings are stuffed with festive Christmas movies, like “A Christmas Story” (1983), “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), “Scrooged” (1988), and other versions of “A Christmas Carol”.  Well, AHFW is looking back at movies that feature the seminal holiday too. The only difference is that our picks aren’t traditional Yuletide affairs. For most of these flicks, Christmas isn’t the central focus, or in some cases, Dec. 25 is barely mentioned.  Still, each picture is technically a Xmas film, so enjoy our walk through 12 not-so-Christmassy Christmas movies, and…

Movie of the Week: ‘Contempt’

“Contempt” (1963) – Look up the definition of ‘contempt’, and you’ll find “the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn” and “disregard for something that should be taken into account.” Director Jean-Luc Godard’s movie has a movie-business setting.  However, rather than tackling big-budget, big-screen magic, “Contempt” is primarily conversational, and the film’s title certainly becomes a key element to the discourse. Paul (Michel Piccoli), a French playwright-turned-screenwriter, and his wife Camille (Brigitte Bardot) are visiting Italy and on-set for a production of “Odyseey”. …

Movie of the Week: ‘My Best Fiend’

Werner Herzog turned 79 years young on Sept. 5, so we have to pick one of his films as our Movie of the Week! It’s terribly difficult to pick just one Werner film. However, since “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (1972) and “Fitzcarraldo” (1982) are two of his biggest and most ambitious narratives, it makes sense to pick a documentary that specifically turns to those flicks, so “My Best Fiend” it is! “My Best Fiend” (1999) – Werner featured Klaus Kinski in five of his films, but after watching this…