Christmas Story : La Véritable Histoire du père Noël

One of the more believable and realistic Santa movies I've ever seen. It is set in Lapland and is well acted with beautiful scenery and costumes. It's a great story for kids to see about how Santa came to be, why he gives presents and why he cares for children as he does.

The original Finish is clearly dubbed over, but as that goes it's not really disruptive to the story at all. There's no fluffy magic or elves or flying reindeer or anything like that. But a much more believable story of a man and how the myth of Santa has grown.

Highly recommended to add to your young children's annual Christmas movie list.

its simplicity. this is the basic virtue of this admirable touching film. nothing new, at the first sigh. nothing extraordinary. the story of a poor boy and its purpose of life. the great thing is the atmosphere. you touch each scene. to discover, again and again, old memories. about other poor boys, about small communities, about childhood and about dark character with painful past. it could be a fairy tale or reinvent of the origins of a tradition. but it is more - a real simple story who gives the chance to Hannu - Pekka Bjorkmann to give a realistic in magic manner portrait of Santa, to Kari Vaananen to remind pages from Dickens and to be the perfect master and to Laura Bim to shine.and, sure, the role of cinematography, landscapes and smell of the house are important details. it is more than a Christmas film. it is only a simple story about basic values. and this does it successful.

I actually got to see this movie for the first time in Rome, Italy this past October during a film festival. Before that, I had never heard of this movie, let alone that they were dubbing a version in English. I got to meet the director who was very nice. He talked about all the things that a beginning filmmaker should never do, including working in bad weather, working with children, special effects, and animals, all of which were done for this movie. Shot on location in the dead of winter, with real reindeer, this is a pretty impressive piece of work. It's also a great movie to add to the collection of other Christmas films. I can't predict whether it will become a Christmas classic, but I can say that I liked the back story given to Santa Claus in this movie.

Let's assume that even Santa Claus was born some day in the past. That he was a small boy that grew up to be the mythical figure of legends and bedtime stories. What would he have been like, as a boy, as a man starting the Christmas tradition of giving gifts, as an old, bearded man driving reindeer sled? Well, if that has aroused your interest, then this is the movie for you.

Filmed mainly in Finnish Lapland, it's a beautiful film to behold. The rural, medieval fishing village offers a breathtaking setting for young Nikolas' beginnings and the bleak winter grandeur of Lapland practically screams Christmas at you. The music is also the very best Finland has to offer and as a whole you can find no fault in the production values or the technical aspects.

The acting is also topnotch. I especially love Kari Väänänen as Iisakki, the aging carpenter who takes Nikolas under his wing and makes him the toymaker the world knows him as. Such a perfect blend of curmudgeon and grumpy warmheartedness. The rest of the actors are equally talented and they really sell the whole premise.

With the sole exception of Hannu-Pekka Björkman, playing the role of adult Nikolas, that of Santa Claus. He's a good actor, don't get me wrong, and it's really the script's fault instead of his, but his take on Santa Claus is way over the top. And yes, it's a more realistic take on Santa's origins, but did they really need to make him so unhinged. The only reason this Santa wasn't locked in a looney bin was that they hadn't been invented yet. And no, that doesn't ruin the film and it's really just a pet peeve of mine, but I prefer my Santas to be a lot more dignified than this.

As a whole Christmas Story has potential to become a classic. It practically is one already in Finland where it is shown every Christmas Eve as the main movie of the night. That's how good it is.

I love holiday films. I also love good fairy tales (and I don't mean "good" to mean "cleaned up and sanitized for our protection"). So, when a good fairy tale and holiday film get together and give birth to a wonderful film, I'm very happy. The film isn't "pleasant," but it has a lot of heart-warming sequences. It's not "fun," but it does help to anchor the fact that all situations have more than one side to be told. It has some humour (at least, in the English dubbed version), and the voice acting was very good. The scenery was beautiful. As somebody else said, it's not good for children under 10 to watch, unless a parent or older friend/relative are watching it too, who can answer what or why things happened.

I watched the film, cried a lot, smiled a good deal, and sighed with contentment at the end. Definitely a film to watch with a cup of cocoa and a disinclination to go out, afterwards.