5 films that tell the house as the undisputed protagonist at Christmas

There are many traditions that Christmas brings with it: gifts, family lunches, holidays. And the cinema. What Christmas would it be without the great classics on the big and small screen? Is it really Christmas without watching Una Poltrona per Due at least once, a cult film by John Landis that has been broadcast on TV in Italy every Eve since 1997? And what about A Christmas Carol, the Christmas story par excellence, written by Charles Dickens in 1843 and revisited countless times in cartoons and films.

There are many films that exploit the theme of the holiday to tell the most different stories: the house, the decorations, the dinners, are often at the centre of the plots. Let's see 5 films that tell the house as the undisputed star of Christmas.

A now classic comedy is the one starring little Kevin, played by Macaulay Culkin. The McCallister family plan to spend the Christmas holidays in Paris, but forget their youngest son at home.

After the initial bewilderment, the little pest will find a way to keep two malicious thieves away from their home, literally driving them crazy between traps and pitfalls. Like Una poltrona per due, Home Alone too is often shown on TV during the holidays.

Another comedy put the house as the protagonist of Christmas. In Holiday, the protagonists Amanda and Iris, played by Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, see their romantic relationships collapse right during the holidays.

Thanks to a home exchange site, they get in touch and decide to go and live in each other's home for a while. Here the home comes into play as a lifestyle, because while Amanda is used to living in the luxury and comfort of Los Angeles she is not used to the English countryside. Iris is lost in the American metropolis. But for both, the radical change will give rise to unexpected encounters and new perspectives.

Let's enter the field of the great classics for another story set in the Christmas holidays. In The Apartment, the house is at the centre of the plot starting with the title. The story - which takes place all between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve - revolves around the house of C.C. Baxter, who rents his apartment to the executives of the company he works for to supplement, who take the opportunity to meet with her lovers.

Everything goes smoothly until Baxter realizes that he has fallen in love with the lover of one of his executives, a feeling that will lead him to overturn his personal and working life. Billy Wilder's film, shot in 1960, received ten Oscar nominations, winning five statuettes.

The most classic of Christmas family gatherings, the laid table, several generations meet to celebrate the holidays. But also, to give vent to hypocrisy and selfishness.

Dearest relatives, poisonous relations, is a bitter-tasting comedy, a masterpiece by director Mario Monicelli from 1992. The key scenes of the film take place around the dining room ready for Christmas. Just as they are eating, the now old grandparents of the house make an announcement destined to shock everyone: since they can no longer live alone and do not want to go to a hospice, they ask their children to choose who among them will be able to welcome them into the house to spend their last years of family life. The children, fearful of having to change their balance, do not welcome the news well and, indeed, devise a shocking way out.

At Christmas you can't be alone, not even the most gruff and lonely can. At the centre of A perfect family film

 by Paolo Genovese and with Sergio Castellitto, the story of a powerful and rich man but very lonely, who for the holidays decides to hire a company of actors who will have to interpret his family.

The actors have to play a precise script, but over time reality and fiction will become more and more intertwined. Here is another of the Christmas films that has the house as its protagonist, since all the staging takes place in the protagonist's home.