SEE IT BIG! Holiday Films Features 14 Classic and Unconventional Movies

With a wide selection of great movies by directors including Ingmar Bergman, Joe Dante, John Huston, Stanley Kubrick, Vincente Minnelli, and more, Museum of the Moving Image presents a holiday edition of its popular ongoing series See It Big!, from November 19 through December 24, 2016. The season opens this Saturday with back-to-back screenings of Tim Burton and Henry Selick's The Nightmare Before Christmas, screening in Dolby Digital 3-D; Barry Levinson's heartfelt, autobiographical Avalon, chronicling generations of a Jewish family in Baltimore; and Hannah and Her Sisters, Woody Allen's funny yet philosophical family dramedy starring Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, Dianne Wiest, and Michael Caine-with the last two films centered around Thanksgiving meals.

See It Big! Holiday Films includes fourteen films, with classics such as Miracle on 34th Street, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Shop Around the Corner, and Fanny and Alexander, alongside more unconventional films such as the Bruce Willis-helmed action movie Die Hard, Joe Dante's Gremlins, dysfunctional family gatherings A Christmas Tale and The Ice Storm, and Stanley Kubrick's haunting Eyes Wide Shut. Nearly all of the films will be presented in 35mm, with the Vincente Minnelli-Judy Garland classic Meet Me in St. Louis in a restored 35mm print.

The full schedule is included below and online at movingimage.us/holiday. Unless otherwise noted, tickets are $12 (discounts for seniors, students, and youth / free for Museum members at the Film Lover and MoMI Kids Premium levels and above). Advance tickets are available online. Please note: Beginning December 1, tickets will be $15 (discounts still apply).

See It Big! is an ongoing series organized by Reverse Shot editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert, Chief Curator David Schwartz, and Associate Film Curator Eric Hynes.

SCHEDULE FOR 'SEE IT BIG! HOLIDAY FILMS,' NOVEMBER 19-DECEMBER 24, 2016
All screenings take place in the Sumner M. Redstone Theater (with the exception of Christmas, Again, which will be in the Bartos Screening Room) at Museum of the Moving Image, 36-01 35 Avenue in Astoria, New York. Advance tickets are available online athttp://movingimage.us/holiday. Ticket purchase includes same-day admission to the Museum's galleries.

The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Henry Selick. 1993, 76 mins. Dolby Digital 3-D. With the voices of Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, Paul Reubens. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, longs for something more in life, and thinks he has found it when he stumbles upon the brilliant twinkling lights of Christmastown, and becomes determined to have it all for himself. Conceived and produced by Tim Burton and directed by stop-motion animation whiz Selick, this meticulously crafted fantasy, featuring Oscar-nominated special effects and a dazzling, tuneful song score by the great composer Danny Elfman, is a new classic.
Tickets: $15 (with discounts for seniors and students / free for Museum members at the Film Lover and Kids Premium levels and above).

Avalon
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 4:00 P.M.
Dir. Barry Levinson. 1990, 128 mins. 35mm. With Armin Mueller-Stahl, Joan Plowright, Aidan Quinn. Levinson's greatest film is this profoundly personal, autobiographical drama about the American immigrant experience, following one Jewish family in Baltimore, overseen by wallpaper-hanger patriarch Sam Krichinsky (a gorgeous performance by German actor Mueller-Stahl), throughout the 1950s and beyond, using Thanksgiving as a recurring anchor-including a particularly, hilariously contentious one. As shot by Allen Daviau and scored by Randy Newman, this is an evocative, exquisitely made work of popular American art.

Hannah and Her Sisters
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Woody Allen. 1986, 103 mins. 35mm. With Mia Farrow, Michael Caine, Dianne Wiest, Barbara Hershey. Beginning and ending at Thanksgiving, Woody Allen's beguilingly funny yet philosophical family dramedy is one of his very best films, with Mia Farrow, Barbara Hershey, and an Oscar-winning Dianne Wiest as three sisters, each experiencing her own romantic and career travails; Michael Caine (also winning an Oscar here) as Farrow's husband, committing adultery with Hershey; and Allen himself as Farrow's ex, going through a hilarious bout of major hypochondria.

The Ice Storm
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Ang Lee. 1997, 113 mins. 35mm. With Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Tobey Maguire. The kids are not all right, but neither are the parents, in this drama of domestic undoing in suburban Connecticut in the early seventies. Following the sexual confusions and exploits of the various members of two families over the course of one Thanksgiving weekend, The Ice Storm is a singular mood piece, elegant, chilling, and occasionally very funny as it leads to a piercing conclusion.

Gremlins
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 3:00 P.M.
Dir. Joe Dante. 1984, 106 mins. 35mm. With Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, Hoyt Axton. This nasty little number, produced by Steven Spielberg, is a cheerfully gory throwback to fifties B-monster-movies in which a Rockwell-ready American town falls under siege at Yuletide to a horde of mischievous, murderous beasts. With its gruesome kitchen set piece (in which a lovable mom slices, dices, and microwaves a handful of the creatures) and unforgettably grim Phoebe Cates monologue about why she hates Christmas, Gremlins might not be for young children, but its subversive exuberance can make an adult feel like a kid again.

Die Hard
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. John McTiernan. 1988. 131 mins. 35mm. With Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman, Reginald Veljohnson, Paul Gleason, William Atherton. Not satisfied with simply being one of the great action movies of the 1980s, Die Hard has steadily become a beloved Christmas movie as well. Easily the best holiday fare to feature heavy artillery, pyrotechnic explosions, and Bruce Willis walking barefoot across shards of glass, Die Hard pits retired New York cop John McClane against a vicious cadre of international terrorists, who have interrupted an office Christmas party to take control of L.A.'s new Nakatomi Plaza skyscraper.

Miracle on 34th Street
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 3:00 P.M.
Dir. George Seaton. 1947. 96 mins. 35mm. With Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Hara, Natalie Wood. This Christmas perennial is so iconic that one might forget what a witty, clever piece of work it is, as pinpoint accurate a satire about post-WWII consumer culture as it is delightful reaffirmation of human goodness and holiday cheer. Winner of much-deserved Oscars for its screenplay and for best supporting actor Edmund Gwenn as "a nice man with whiskers" named Kris Kringle who gets a job at Macy's during the holiday shopping season, Miracle on 34th Streetis an elegant New York comedy, featuring adorable Natalie Wood in her first major role, as a skeptical Santa nonbeliever.

Fanny and Alexander
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 6:00 P.M.
Dir. Ingmar Bergman. 1982, 188 mins. 35mm. In Swedish, German, and Yiddish with English subtitles. With Bertil Guve, Gun Wallgren, Erland Josephson. Bergman's magnificent family saga encompasses a year in the life of the extended Ekdahl clan, mostly seen through the eyes of the imaginative young Alexander. Part fairy tale, part existential drama, Fanny and Alexander is a banquet of a film, featuring gorgeous, Oscar-winning cinematography, art direction, and costume design.

The Shop Around the Corner
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2, 7:00 P.M.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Ernst Lubitsch. 1940, 99 mins. 35mm. With Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Frank Morgan, Joseph Schildkraut, Sara Haden. Ernst Lubitsch's exquisitely wrought tale of two workplace lonelyhearts has the power to put all other romantic comedies to shame. James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan play contentious colleagues at Matuschek and Company, a Budapest store gearing up for Christmas. Each of them is falling in love with an unseen pen pal found via the personals page of the newspaper. Neither suspects that they might be falling for one another. An achingly perceptive sketch of singlehood and modern romance in the big city, a template for generations of workplace comedies, and a warm, deeply felt expression of holiday spirit, The Shop Around the Corner simply has it all.

The Dead
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 4:30 P.M.
Dir. John Huston. 1987, 83 mins. 35mm. With Anjelica Huston, Donal McCann. One of the most effortlessly accomplished movies of the 1980s, the final film in Huston's illustrious and wildly diverse career is a brilliant adaptation of James Joyce's masterpiece "The Dead," set in 1904 at a Christmas party in Dublin thrown by two elderly sisters. Huston's roving camera captures the general merry-making of food, drink, and dance, though the mood of the annual gathering grows increasingly melancholy, leading to an unforgettable monologue, courtesy of a haunting Anjelica Huston. The director pulls off the unthinkable: doing justice to one of the greatest works in all English literature.

A Christmas Tale
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Arnaud Desplechin. 2008, 150 mins. 35mm. With Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric, Chiara Mastroianni. This big, boisterous, bursting-at-the-seams holiday treat from the brilliant French filmmaker Arnaud Desplechin (Kings and Queen) is a dysfunctional family saga like no other, in which a clan's imperious matriarch (Deneuve) finds out she needs a rare marrow transplant before her entire family-including her black-sheep son-comes for a long, contentious Christmas weekend. Desplechin uses all sorts of visual and sonic flourishes in this high-energy, early-millennial masterwork, which turns the swooning, emotional roller coaster of going home for the holidays into cinematic excitement.

Meet Me in St. Louis
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Vincente Minnelli. 1944, 113 mins. Restored 35mm print. With Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor. In this bittersweet turn-of-the-century musical, Minnelli's first color film, a family contends with life, love, and an impending move from St. Louis to New York City. Minnelli deftly organizes the Technicolor palette around Judy Garland, moving seamlessly between story and song-and what songs they are, including "The Boy Next Door," "The Trolley Song," and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"-from one season to the next, including memorable extended Halloween and Christmas sequences.

Christmas, Again
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2:00 P.M.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2:00 P.M.
Dir. Charles Poekel. 2014, 80 mins. Digital projection. With Kentucker Audley, Hannah Gross, Craig Butta, Maria Cantillo, Caitlin Mehner, Andrea Suarez Paz. A heartbroken Christmas-tree salesman (Audley) returns to New York City hoping to put his past behind him. Living in a seasonal trailer and working the night shift, his mood continually darkens until he finds a mysterious woman passed out on a park bench and brings her to safety. Suddenly there is a glimmer of hope, even brightening his sidewalk encounters with the parade of New York strangers. Charles Poekel's debut film is an intimate and delicately moving holiday tale, brought to life by Sean Price Williams's impressionistic photography and Kentucker Audley's subtly powerful performance.

Eyes Wide Shut
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 7:00 P.M.
Dir. Stanley Kubrick. 1999, 159 mins. 35mm. With Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack. Stanley Kubrick spent a record-breaking 400 days shooting his final masterpiece, a beguiling, New York City-set erotic puzzle film, for which he meticulously recreated Greenwich Village on a British soundstage. Then-married power couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman star as a Manhattan doctor and his wife. After she confesses erotic fantasies involving another man, he embarks on a surreal, Christmastime odyssey that takes him into the depths of the city's shadowy sexual underworld. The film's centerpiece is an elaborate masked orgy that has the uncanny feel of a dream.