6/10
Santa's New Wave.
12 January 2021
Warning: Spoilers
After the wicked Comedy Santa Claus Is a Stinker (1982-also reviewed) I decided to check for what other French X-Mas-set films I had waiting to be watched. Finding this to be a title with a runtime of under a hour,I got set to discover how blue Santa's eyes are.

View on the film:

Sown together from scraps of leftover film stock he got from Jean-Luc Godard, writer/directing auteur Jean Eustache unwraps a French New Wave (FNW) X-Mas tale soaked in a brine pessimism atmosphere of grainy FNW fluid tracking shots walking down the streets with the Santa-dressed Daniel.

Going pass a cinema screening The 400 Blows (1959), Eustache keeps Daniel jolly with the rawness of the FNW, in what appears to be illegally filmed sequences bringing a in the moment grit,thanks to a overlapping soundtrack,where speeding cars on the street drown out parts of Daniel's conversations.

Initially taking the job as Santa in order to raise cash to buy a jacket just before Christmas, the screenplay by Eustache unzips Daniel's jacket to study his frustration at not having a partner, which Eustache does not romanticise, instead biting Daniel with a cynical Vampirism, that reveals itself in this FNW loner having a abusive impulsive side lash out to any woman who gives any hint of affection, to a Santa with blue eyes.
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