Christmas Lace

"Christmas Lace" is a short film included in a full-length collection of mostly forgotten shorts about this holiday entitled "Vintage Christmas Classics", though the word 'classic' really seems out of place when it comes to most, if not all, the films.

"Christmas Lace" ("Fantaisie de Noël") is a short sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada. It's in color and is set, apparently, in Quebec. The folks in the film speak English, though I assume there's probably a French language version out there as well. Surprisingly, Geneviève Bujold narrates the film, and it was made the year she became famous for starring in "Coma".

The story is pretty scant...and involves a thief, a little girl and her grandmother who is a lace maker...and a stolen bowl of nuts. What follows isn't very Christmassy and involves wolves, a trapper and more. Its production values are miles ahead of the other films in the collection, though this isn't saying much as the others probably cost about $.38 to make. But being an NFB release, they had access to money and costumes other films didn't have. Overall, while far from being a classic, it's not that bad and is one of the few films in "Vintage Christmas Classics" worth seeing...though it's far from great and its Christmas message is strange indeed.