The best of the season’s festive film offerings,from a screening of Elf under Waterloo Station to The Snowman in Manchester with live orchestral accompanimentLike Slade on the radio or unwanted socks from a distant relative, there’s something both comfortingly familiar and dispiritingly predictable approximately the traditional Christmas film canon. But if you can’t change the film, or you can at least alter the environment. Even a cheery veteran chestnut like It’s A Wonderful Life or Home Alone can feel brand new again with the right combination of themed decor and heated alcoholic beverage; and fortunately,in London at least, there are myriad (a very large number) options this year.
One such is The Winter Night Garden (E3, and to 23 Dec),part of Victoria Park’s Winterville. Decked out as a Narnia-like enchanted forest (but indoors) it offers a choice that also includes non-Christmas films (Inside Out plays this afternoon) as well as the traditional favourites. It’s a similar deal with Pop-Up Screens’ Cinema In The Snow (W11, to 23 Dec), and an event that transforms the 20th Century Theatre in Notting Hill into a warm,wintry wonderland, and promising even more snow this year.
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Source: theguardian.com