Christmas Booty

I have to say, my family looks after me. For Christmas Ms Jonboywalton bought me the Special Edition release of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, as well as season one of perhaps the most consistantly funny show currently screening, Scrubs. And if that wasn't enough in itself, Mère Ms Jonboywalton bought me Trufault's classic Jules et Jim on DVD. I am surrounded by the most gracious and thoughtful women. Ms J made the stipulation as part of her generous gift, that I was never to even try to induce her to watch Sergio Leone's Italian-Western masterpiece under pain of death. For me this was a small price to pay, and I unquestionly agreed.

Some think that movies don't make for good gifts (music, too) - that to give a friend or loved one a DVD is somehow betraying a lack of thought on the part of the giver. Not so. To get the right movie as a gift shows that the giver truly cares for the receiver.

A favourite film can convey feelings that can't be readily put into words. To sit down with that special somebody and share the experience of watching that movie that means so much to them, to let them lean over and murmur a preemption or a side note, to have the opportunity to put an arm around them when it gets to an emotional climax - The experience is one of the most imtimate moments you can share with another person. A favourite movie - a story that really gets to you - is a window to your soul. The most extraordinary part of this is that something that probably took at least two hundred people to create can be made such a personal artifact, invested with so much of yourself. The best movies - like the best books - are the ones that challenge you each time you go back to them. They should be shared.