a real christmas
by
Douglas Messerli
Gerd
Brantenberg and Frank Mosvold (screenplay), Frank Mosvold (director) Hjem
til jul (Home for Christmas) / 2000 [4 minutes]
In director Frank Mosvold’s 4-minute satire
of the many “coming home for Christmas” gay films, many of them after the date
of this satire, featuring a returned son or relative ready to reveal to the
family his or her closeted sexuality, he has finally let out a hoot for our
holiday pleasure.
Annie (Ingrid J. Norby) is determined to
tell her family this Christmas, and at the beginning of the film is seen laid
out on a bed dreaming how things might play out.
She meets her mother (Brit Elisabeth
Haagensli) in the kitchen where she is busy stuffing the holding turkey. Annie
quite suddenly reports: “I have something to tell you,” those first words that
always reveal a long-held secret, usually about sexuality, is about to be freed
into the world.
The friendly mother responds that of course
her daughter can tell her anything.
Almost immediately Annie breathes out a
sigh and utters the words “I’m gay.”
If for a second it might seem that the
mother is a bit concerned, her words quickly reveal that she has been hoping
for this moment her entire life, and she couldn’t be more delighted to have a
lesbian daughter.
Annie’s sister Bente (Tuva Hølmebakk) soon
after enters with her husband Ragnar (Bjørnar Teigen), the mother announcing
the news upon her entry that Annie is a homosexual. The sister is also
delighted, proclaiming that she has always wished she were one.
Ragnar pipes up, “What about me?”
Bente admits that without him she wouldn’t
have “our little dumpling,” a reference presumably to their young son Ole.
Annie turns over in bed where she has been
sleeping, the dream continuing with her father (Per Christian Ellefsen)
announcing to all how proud their grandfather and Mimmi would have been “had
they lived to see a lesbian in their family.”
“A toast to lesbianism,” he declares,
lifting his wine glass, “A toast to the future.”
“Long live lesbians,” continues Ragnar;
“In China,” adds his wife.
The mother caps it all with her blessing
to “think kindly of all the lesbians in the world.”
Annie is awakened from her lovely dream
with the chime of a doorbell. It is her lover (Urmila Berg-Domaas), who quickly
asks if she’s told her family yet, Annie admitting that she’s scared. So too is
her girlfriend afraid to tell her family, but they know they must.
From the other room we see the family,
hand in hand, singing as they dance slowly round the tree: “Silent Night,
Lesbian Night.”
The closing frames feature the words:
“Gled noen deen Julien” (“Surprise someone this Christmas”), —fortell dem du er
lesbisk (“Tell them you are a lesbian.”)
Today, we have an entire history of
Christmas specials featuring gay men and women, but what is amazing about this
charming short film in 2000 is that most of the films we are talking about were
released from the years 2015-2022 (The Happiest Season, Under the
Christmas Tree, and The Holiday Club being examples with lesbian
romances). Mosvold was way ahead of the curve in this memorable comic Christmas
movie—although it might have been influenced a little by Jodie Foster’s 1995
film, Home for the Holidays, in which Claudia’s gay brother Tommy
delivers her a boyfriend, Leo, on their return home for Thanksgiving.
Los
Angeles, December 24, 2025
Reprinted
from My Queer Cinema blog (December 2025).
No comments:
Post a Comment