Cinematheque offers free screenings of Christmas films

Cinematheque Passion will be showing two films free-of-charge during Christmas to “warm cinema fans’ hearts,” the arthouse announced yesterday.

The two films to be shown are Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” and Billy Wilder’s “The Apartment.” They will be shown twice, once on December 24 and again on December 25.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” follows the story of George Bailey, who finds his previously happy life falling apart around him on Christmas Eve. He considers suicide at the edge of a bridge – but Clarence, his guardian angel, intervenes and shows George what his beloved hometown of Bedford Falls would be like without him.

Cinematheque considers the film “one of the must-see Christmas films of all time.”

Meanwhile, “The Apartment” tells the story of C.C. Baxter, an office clerk who courts favor with the executives in his office by giving them the key to his small apartment for their extramarital affairs.

His callous boss, J.D. Sheldrake, is one of them and is having an affair with the elevator operator Baxter likes. Baxter has a war of sense and sensibility as the operator tries to commit suicide in his condo. AL