The holidays encourage blissful laziness and catching up on culture. Finally, there is a bit more time than usual! What to read, which movies to watch and what music to listen to for the holidays? Here is our subjective selection of unique cultural suggestions for the upcoming period.
The holiday period is a time to finally watch the Christmas series that were always planned or to get acquainted with new music and movie recommendations on Netflix. We present six hot cultural suggestions for Christmas and the New Year! Christmas movies are not only Home Alone or Love Actually. Christmas music is not just carols. Check it out yourself!
Holiday movies – Netflix & Chill
"Let them eat cake!” – you probably know this saying and its author. The movie Marie Antoinette has just appeared on Netflix. We recommend macarons for the movie – it might not be a novelty, but, for the year it was made (2006), it remains fresh.
The director, Sofia Coppola, presents an unusual slice of French history in the pop version. The modern music soundtrack adds dynamism and creates an interesting contrast with the historical seriousness of the subject. An additional treat for fashion fans will be the queen's shopping scenes or her styling. If you want to lightly bite into a historical theme and appreciate costume cinema, this is the perfect choice for you.
Staying within social themes (we love engaged cinema!), we recommend Hillbilly Elegy – a hot 2020 drama with a brilliantly characterized Glenn Close, who plays the steadfast grandmother of the main character. The character is J.D. Vance (Gabriel Basso), a former Marine from southern Ohio, now a student at Yale Law School, who is building his life away from his provincial family... and has to return home for personal reasons.
These are not typical Christmas movies, but Netflix is a mine of titles, where everyone will find something for themselves. We recommend these titles, where you will certainly not waste your time. Elegy was rated by Tomasz Raczkowski at seven out of ten points.
Christmas series – with and without a crown
Without leaving your armchair, be sure to visit the British royal family in The Crown series (Netflix). Beware: Your impressions of certain people may change! The fourth, freshest season reveals entirely different faces of the family than those known from the media. To encourage you, we will only reveal that the famous opponent of Queen Elizabeth, Margaret Thatcher, is played by... Gillian Anderson, known from the series The X Files.
In December, the premiere of the fourth season of Stranger Things also took place. A group of teenage friends, with the somewhat eccentric Eleven at the forefront, after the last, traumatic adventures and struggles with supernatural forces, seem to be returning to boring everyday life, but not for long. The action takes place in the 80s. Lovers of design and fashion as well as film hits of those years will certainly be satisfied. The season also contains many references to other productions: Alien, The Exorcist or Ghostbusters.
Have you caught up on series and movies? Time to turn on the Christmas music and reach for a good book. Check out what we recommend.
Christmas Music – not just Silent Night
Recently, on December 4th, the premiere of the publication Męskie Granie orchestra took place, with Daria Zawiałow, Król, Igo, Bass Astral, Kasia Nosowska and others. The artists took on such classics as Zanim zrozumiesz by Varius Manx, Bananowy Song by the Vox group or Boskie Buenos by Maanam. It's great music for Christmas and the upcoming New Year's Eve. Listen to hits from those years in new, energetic arrangements!
You should also like the new album by O.S.T.R and Hades, HAO2 – music for (not necessarily traditional) Christmas, but also uncertain pandemic times. It does not lack reflective numbers worth thinking about, but also fortifying and giving hope for a better tomorrow message.
Music will be a great background for captivating reading. Reach for the wise, realistic, but also warm Book about love by Olga Drenda and Małgorzata Halber, known from the Facebook series of drawings about the Hero. Olga Drenda is known for her research on customs and cult objects from the turn of the 80s and 90s, which she discussed in her Polish Ghostology.
The Book about Love is for everyone who wants to be loved – even if they do not admit it. It is a loosely essayistic river-conversation of two close colleagues on the subject of relationships and love, with references to Marcel Proust or... Doge from memes. A must-read position!
The holiday break will allow you to catch up a bit in the field of culture. Almost certainly you will run out of time to do this! It is important to choose well, without feeling a waste of time. Take advantage of our recommendations and have fun, not looking at the clock.
