A Totally Bodacious Nineties Christmas: Festive Cinema of the 1990s (2022)
Paperback
534 pages Extremis Publishing Published November 2022 ISBN-10: 1739854357 ISBN-13: 978-1-7398543-5-5 Book Details: If the 1980s had been the decade that had brought festive cinema out of its wilderness period and back into the public consciousness as never before, the 1990s would continue to reinvigorate the genre while also returning with fresh purpose to the central themes of its post-war Golden Age. The result would be a mixture of originality and traditionalism which was to prove successful at the box-office as well as reinforcing the relevance of the Christmas movie amongst critics and commentators. From the author of The Golden Age of Christmas Movies and A Righteously Awesome Eighties Christmas, this book explores some of the most prominent festive films of the nineties - as well as discussing some of the decade’s more unusual yuletide features. Moving from madcap comedies to family dramas, by way of many other subgenres in-between, the topics which arose throughout the Christmas cinema of the decade are considered along with some unexpected movie facts. The 1990s marked a period of lightning-fast technological development and substantial cultural change, which had wide-ranging effects on the world of cinema. A Totally Bodacious Nineties Christmas will take you on a journey through the festive movies of this tempestuous era, blending nostalgia for the nineties with an examination of how that decade’s films had a major impact on the genre which persists even to the present day. Features: This book discusses fourteen Christmas films from the 1990s, including Home Alone (Chris Columbus, 1990), All I Want for Christmas (Robert Lieberman, 1991), 29th Street (George Gallo, 1991), The Muppet Christmas Carol (Brian Henson, 1992), A Midnight Clear (Keith Gordon, 1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick, 1993), Miracle on 34th Street (Les Mayfield, 1994), The Santa Clause (John Pasquin, 1994), Trapped in Paradise (George Gallo, 1994), Mixed Nuts (Nora Ephron, 1994), The Ref (Ted Demme, 1994), The Preacher’s Wife (Penny Marshall, 1996), Jingle All the Way (Brian Levant, 1996) and I’ll Be Home for Christmas (Arlene Sanford, 1998). An appendix is included which details some of the other festive cinema of this period, along with a filmography, bibliography and index. The Inside Story: A Totally Bodacious Nineties Christmas is a continuation of my series of books which explore the festive cinema of the twentieth century. The Christmas films of the 1990s came at an interesting time in the development of the genre, as they benefited from the sharp increase in public attention towards festively-themed features that had taken place throughout the 1980s, while also re-examining the key themes and conventions of Christmas movie-making that had emerged throughout its Golden Age of the 1940s and 50s. The result was one of the most fascinating eras in the genre's recent history. The Christmas films of the 1990s became best known for their strident celebration of traditionalism, yet paradoxically many of the most prominent features of the period were acutely aware of the way that society was changing rapidly and sought to take stock of shifting cultural mores throughout the course of the decade. As a result, the nineties offered up an intriguing mixture of nostalgia and modernity which laid the groundwork for the carnivalesque clash of styles in many of the Christmas movies that would follow in the decades ahead. This book covers the commercial and critical titans of the era, from the smash hit Home Alone through to the innovative triumphs of The Muppet Christmas Carol and The Nightmare Before Christmas. However, it also considers the more experimental features of the time, including The Ref, Mixed Nuts and 29th Street, as well as high-profile remakes such as The Preacher's Wife and Miracle on 34th Street. The nineties witnessed considerable cultural change, technological development and geopolitical upheaval, and this fast-moving social evolution - and uncertainty about the future on both the domestic and international fronts - were mirrored in the cinema of the time. By contrasting contemporary critical reaction to more retrospective analysis in recent years, A Totally Bodacious Nineties Christmas contemplates the long-term influence of this tumultuous decade and examines why these films have had such a lasting impact on festive movie-making in the years following their production. |