最适宜圣诞节观赏的电影名单

本文最初发表于2012年11月23日。

翻译：王艳

Dreaming of a Blu-ray Christmas

As Blu-ray players continue to drop in price and rise in popularity, many distributors are returning to their libraries to create newly restored and remastered editions of enduring classics and popular favorites. The price tag on some of this year’s gift box collections may seem a bit stiff, but per title, the sets can still represent a genuine bargain, particularly given the heavy discounts available at online retailers. (All prices given below are the manufacturer’s suggested retail; in most cases you’ll be able to find markdowns of 30 to 40 percent.) And a well-produced Blu-ray, like Sony’s new edition of “Lawrence of Arabia,” offers a quality of sound and image that none of the streaming services — with their highly compressed digital files — can come close to matching.

Only the seasonal selection seems a bit slim this year, as if the studios were finally running out of holiday-themed movies to reissue. (Here’s a vote for one forgotten title: Joseph Kane’s 1945 film “The Cheaters,” a Republic release.) While chestnuts like “White Christmas” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” remain available, I’ve reached back a little to recommend some less familiar titles from years past.

Seasonal

‘ARTHUR CHRISTMAS’ Lost in last year’s crush of theatrical releases, this fable from the British studio Aardman Animation — in which Santa’s hapless youngest son (James McAvoy) struggles to deliver an overlooked present — gets another chance on home video. (Sony, 3-D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD combo, $55.99; Blu-ray/DVD combo, $40.99; DVD, $30.99; PG.)

‘THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL’ Michael Caine as Scrooge surrounded by an all-felt cast in Brian Henson’s 1992 adaptation of the classic Dickens story. (Disney, Blu-ray, $26.50; DVD, $19.99; G.)

‘THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS’ Tim Burton’s 1993 vision of a goth Christmas, rendered in stop-motion animation by the director Henry Selick (“Coraline”). (Disney, 3-D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD combo, $49.99; Blu-ray/DVD combo, $40.99; DVD, $29.99; PG.)

‘PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES’ John Hughes’s 1987 comedy, in which a reluctant Steve Martin teams up with an overbearing John Candy in a desperate attempt to get home for Thanksgiving, gets a high-definition upgrade. (Paramount, Blu-ray, $22.98; previously issued DVD, $12.98; R.)

‘REMEMBER THE NIGHT’ A public prosecutor (Fred MacMurray) takes a woman accused of shoplifting (Barbara Stanwyck) home to his family in Indiana for the holidays in Mitchell Leisen’s moving 1940 realization of a script by Preston Sturges. (TCM/Universal, DVD, $19.98; not rated.)

‘ “THE SANTA CLAUSE” 3-MOVIE COLLECTION’ Tim Allen stars in a trilogy of films (1994, 2002, 2006) about a driven single father (Mr. Allen) who discovers new meaning in life when he’s tapped to become the new Santa Claus. (Disney, Blu-ray, $49.99; DVD, $39.99; various ratings.)

‘TCM GREATEST CLASSIC FILMS COLLECTION: HOLIDAY’ Pick up this four-film collection for Ernst Lubitsch’s 1940 masterpiece, “Shop Around the Corner,” with James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan, and consider the three other films — Peter Godfrey’s 1945 “Christmas in Connecticut”; the 1938 MGM adaptation of “A Christmas Carol”; and Roy Del Ruth’s 1947 “It Happened on Fifth Avenue” — as free bonuses. (Warner Home Video, DVD, $27.92; not rated.)

New Releases

‘THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN’ Andrew Garfield plays the melancholy superhero in Marc Webb’s new mounting of the Marvel Comics franchise. (Marvel/Sony, 3-D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD combo, $55.99; Blu-ray/DVD combo, $40.99; DVD, $30.99; PG-13.)

‘THE BOURNE LEGACY’ Another 10-year-old franchise gets a fresh start in Tony Gilroy’s film, with Jeremy Renner as a new undercover operative on the run. (Universal, Blu-ray/DVD combo, $34.98; DVD, $29.98; PG-13.)

‘BRAVE’ The adventures of a rebellious princess in early Scotland, in an animated film from Pixar. (Pixar/Disney, 3-D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD combo, $49.99; Blu-ray/DVD combo, $39.99; DVD, $29.99; PG.)

‘THE DARK KNIGHT RISES’ The latest iteration of Batman, played by Christian Bale under the direction of Christopher Nolan, comes to the end of its three-movie life cycle. (Warner Home Video, Blu-ray/DVD combo, $35.99; DVD, $29.98; PG-13. “The Dark Knight Trilogy,” including “Batman Begins,” “The Dark Knight” and “The Dark Knight Rises,” Blu-ray, $52.99; DVD, $38.99; PG-13.)

‘MAGIC MIKE’ Steven Soderbergh’s sleeper hit stars Channing Tatum as a male stripper in a film based on the actor’s own early job history. (Warner Home Video, Blu-ray/DVD combo, $35.99; DVD, $28.98; R.)

‘MEN IN BLACK 3’ Ten years after their last outing, Agents J and K (Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones) are back fighting aliens, still under the direction of Barry Sonnenfeld. (Sony, 3-D Blu-ray/Blu-ray/DVD combo, $55.99; Blu-ray/DVD combo, $40.99; DVD, $30.99; PG-13.)

‘TED’ A 35-year-old man (Mark Wahlberg) lives with his best friend from childhood: a teddy bear come to foulmouthed life. Seth MacFarlane of “Family Guy” directed. (Universal, Blu-ray/DVD combo, $34.98; DVD, $29.98, R.)

Repackaged Favorites

‘BLADE RUNNER’ All five versions of Ridley Scott’s dystopian fantasy of 1982, fitted out with still more supplementary material. (Warner Home Video, Blu-ray four-disc collector’s edition, $64.99; Blu-ray, $34.99; R.)

‘BOND 50: THE COMPLETE 22 FILM COLLECTION’ All the Bond films from Eon Productions — featuring Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig — packaged in one box with scads of bonus material. (MGM, Blu-ray, $299.99; DVD $199.99; various ratings.)

‘GUYS AND DOLLS’ Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s film of the Frank Loesser musical, starring Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando, restored and remastered for high definition. (Warner Home Video, Blu-ray, $34.99; not rated.)

‘INDIANA JONES: THE COMPLETE ADVENTURES’ All four films in the action-adventure series directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by George Lucas, three of them on Blu-ray for the first time. There’s a fifth disc of supplements. (Paramount, $99.98; PG-13.)

‘LAWRENCE OF ARABIA’ A superb new high-def transfer of the 1962 David Lean desert adventure, available both as a stand-alone and as a deluxe gift edition with a book and a separate disc of supplementary material. (Sony, Blu-ray four-disc collector’s edition, $95.99; Blu-ray, $26.99; PG.)

‘SUNSET BOULEVARD’ A much-needed high-def do-over for the 1950 Billy Wilder film, with Gloria Swanson as a 50-year-old former star who dares to have sexual feelings for a younger man (William Holden). (Paramount, Blu-ray, $26.98; not rated.)

For Cinephiles

‘ALFRED HITCHCOCK: THE MASTERPIECE COLLECTION’ Uneven transfer quality mars this collection of 15 films by one of the greatest artists of the medium, many in their Blu-ray debut. (Universal, Blu-ray, $299.98; not rated.)

‘HEAVEN’S GATE’ A thorough restoration of Michael Cimino’s sprawling 1980 western, presented in a 216-minute cut approved by the director. (Criterion Collection, Blu-ray, $49.95; DVD, $39.95; not rated.)

‘MARY PICKFORD RAGS AND RICHES COLLECTION’ Hollywood’s first female superstar in three representative silent features — “The Poor Little Rich Girl” (1917), “The Hoodlum” (1919) and “Sparrows” (1926) — presented with new orchestral scores. (Milestone, Blu-ray, $39.95; DVD, $34.95; not rated.)

‘DIE NIBELUNGEN’ Fritz Lang’s two-part, four-hour adaptation of the epic poem that inspired Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, here in a superb recent restoration and accompanied by a new recording of Gottfried Huppertz’s original 1924 score. (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, $39.95; not rated.)

‘THE OTTO PREMINGER COLLECTION’ Three controversial films from this director’s late period — “Hurry Sundown” (1967), “Skidoo” (1968) and “Such Good Friends” (1971) — now remastered for Blu-ray. (Olive, Blu-ray, $69.95; R.)

‘VITAPHONE VARIETIES VOLUME 2’ Thirty-five early sound shorts, produced between 1927 and 1931, many filmed in the Warner Brothers Brooklyn studios, that preserve the essence of American vaudeville with performers like Edgar Bergen, Fred Allen and the Yacht Club Boys. (Warner Archive Collection, DVD, $29.95; not rated.)

‘WE CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN’ The last major work of Nicholas Ray (“Rebel Without a Cause”), made with students at the State University of New York, Binghamton, presented here in a reconstruction of its Cannes festival premiere version from 1973. (Oscilloscope, Blu-ray, $34.99; DVD, $29.99; not rated.)