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Vacanze di Natale

Vacanze di Natale

Movie · 1983 · 15 people

Italian holiday habits of the 1980s get a comic once-over in Vacanze di Natale, produced by Filmauro and shot in Italian. Carlo Vanzina wrote the screenplay with Enrico Vanzina and directed this 1983 Christmas comedy, which runs about 97 minutes.

The film was made in the wake of the success of Sapore di mare (1982) and its follow-up Sapore di mare 2 – Un anno dopo (1983). Because it shares a few performers with those films, it can be seen as the wintry counterpart of Sapore di mare. Unlike its predecessors, however, the story is set in the present rather than a nostalgic past. It treats the characters brought together over the Christmas holidays as a comic portrait of the vacation season.

Jerry Calà, Christian De Sica and Karina Huff take the leading roles. The cast also includes Stefania Sandrelli, Claudio Amendola, Antonella Interlenghi, Marilù Tolo, Riccardo Garrone, Rossella Como, Guido Nicheli, Mario Brega and Clara Colosimo. Together with Sapore di mare, it is regarded as a forerunner of the hugely successful cinepanettoni, seasonal Italian comedies for the Christmas period. In 2010 it was shown in a retrospective on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.

DirectorCarlo Vanzina
Production companyFilmauro

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Stefania Sandrelli Stefania Sandrelli Actor · 80 years old Licinia Lentini Actor · 67 years old Jerry Calà Christian De Sica Claudio Amendola Antonella Interlenghi Karina Huff Riccardo Garrone Rossella Como Guido Nicheli Roberto Della Casa Marilù Tolo Mario Brega Rossana Di Lorenzo Franca Scagnetti

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Through different eyes

Cinephile Looks at script, editing and directing choices; keeps a distance from formula films.

The Vanzina brothers' film looks like the first rehearsal of a formula that would be repeated every Christmas, and that is where its historical value lies. Instead of a strong plot, it builds a choral structure out of characters thrown together on holiday. That keeps it light and breezy but also robs it of any dramatic build; scenes often hang somewhere between caricature and observation. Dropping the nostalgia of Sapore di mare to depict the present is, in my view, the right move, because the joke ends up being on the audience itself. Its place in the Venice retrospective on Italian comedy confirms that this modest picture earned a spot in genre history.

History & Society Lens Asks about the period, the social background and what the work reflects.

Because it turns 1980s Italian holiday habits into comedy, the film can be read as a mirror of its own time. Where the earlier films looked back with nostalgia, this time the camera turns to a contemporary winter break. That the holiday season could be comic material in itself says something about how much leisure and going away had come to matter to the middle class in those years. For a viewer from Turkey some details may feel remote; part of the humour assumes familiarity with everyday Italian life of the period. Still, seeing the start of a genre that later became a Christmas tradition is an interesting window on how popular culture takes shape.

Family Viewer Asks whether the whole household can watch it; cares about humour and heart.

Don't assume that a film with Christmas in its name is a family film for the kids. It is about adults thrown together on holiday, and the world it shows is a grown-up one. Young children are unlikely to be gripped, and they would struggle to keep track of the characters. For teenagers and adults it can be a light option for a festive evening. Still, it is best for the grown-ups to check it first and decide whether it suits everyone at home.

These are not reader reviews: they are short editorial takes written from different viewer perspectives with AI assistance. Reader reviews are below.

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