Guillermo del Toro picks the Frank Capra classic It’s a Wonderful Life as his favorite Christmas movie and explains why
This past holiday season, we shared some unconventional Christmas movie recommendations, like The Silent Partner, Anna and the Apocalypse, The Ref, and my own recommendation, Trancers. But even though I love Trancers and also watch Anna and the Apocalypse every December, my two favorite Christmas movies are not unconventional choices at all: every December 25th, I watch A Christmas Story and Christmas Vacation. Very common choices. Someone else with very common choice for their favorite Christmas movie is filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, who revealed to BFI that his holiday favorite is It’s a Wonderful Life.
Directed by Frank Capra, who crafted the screenplay with Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Jo Swerling, the 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life was based on the short story The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern (which was loosely based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol) . Here’s the synopsis: George Bailey has so many problems he is thinking about ending it all – and it’s Christmas! As the angels discuss George, we see his life in flashback. As George is about to jump from a bridge, he ends up rescuing his guardian angel, Clarence – who then shows George what his town would have looked like if it hadn’t been for all his good deeds over the years. The film stars James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Ward Bond, Frank Faylen, and Gloria Grahame.
Guillermo del Toro told BFI, “It’s a Wonderful Life is one of my favorite movies for many reasons. I find it fascinating that Capra, an immigrant [from Italy], gave back America a view of itself that was more lovely and wholesome than it really was, and at the same time darker and more nightmarish than movies tended to imagine. Like Walt Disney, Capra is very often misinterpreted as an eternal optimist, but the nightmarish nature of the dark episodes in It’s a Wonderful Life demonstrate that he understands terror, that he understands darkness. It’s a nightmare that is adjacent to the American Dream, and to the American psyche. There’s always this creepier, darker, edgier side to the Norman Rockwell goodness. The hopefulness of the ending only exists in a contrast. To me it’s perfectly timed, in terms of comedic tone and deliver and melodrama. It’s a movie that it would be impossible to go through without that final release. In a strange way, it’s the greatest ‘What if?’ speculative fiction. I first saw it as a kid on TV and every time I see it, it’s inevitably one of those movies that makes me cry three, four times. We watch it in the cinema every year around Christmas, and we watch it on TV at least another time, because it’s just impeccable.“
Del Toro was one of a dozen filmmakers who told BFI what their favorite movies to watch around Christmas are. To find what the likes of Wes Anderson, Steven Soderbergh, and more like to watch in December, click over to the BFI link. (Spoiler alert: Luca Guadagnino picked The Godfather Part III.)
Do you and Guillermo del Toro have the same Christmas favorite? Share your thoughts on It’s a Wonderful Life by leaving a comment below – and if you plan on watching it sometime soon, beware: the streaming version on free apps is an abomination.
