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From Vive l’amour to Eyes Wide Shut, Gabriela and Mariana Serrano curate a holiday watchlist.
When we think of holiday movies, a few immediately come to mind: It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Home Alone (1990), Elf (2003), or maybe even the action film Die Hard (1988). But for filmmakers Gabriela and Mariana Serrano, the holiday season isn’t just marked by tinsel and jingles. “December always heightens everything,” they say. “It’s when emotions feel closer to the surface, even when nothing is really happening.”
Below, the sisters share a personal watchlist that reflects that feeling, films that hold space for solitude, desire, and the pull toward connection.
Vive l’amour (1994), Tsai Ming-Liang
Three strangers, each profoundly lonely, unknowingly share the same empty apartment in Taipei. A real estate agent, a street vendor, and a young woman drift in and out of the space, brushing against one another without ever fully connecting. “Real lover girls and boys know that Christmas is for yearning,” the sisters note, pointing to the film’s gentle humor and devastating restraint. Tsai Ming-Liang turns isolation into something almost intimate, building toward a now-famous ending that releases all the tension the film has been holding back. “That final cry feels like the emotional reset you need after a long year.”
Birth (2004), Jonathan Glazer
A young boy claims to be the reincarnation of a woman’s late husband, unsettling her carefully reconstructed life. Though the story has nothing to do with Christmas, the Serranos are drawn to its atmosphere. “There’s something about the snow, the quiet, the almost twinkly magic of it that feels like the holidays,” they say. For them, Nicole Kidman’s performance anchors the film’s unsettling premise. “It’s her best performance ever,” they add. “She lets the strangeness sit without explaining it away.”
Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Stanley Kubrick
After a marital confession rattles his sense of self, a New York doctor spends a long winter night wandering the city, searching for meaning and connection. Set against glowing Christmas lights, the film transforms the season into something hypnotic and uneasy. “We joke that this is the goth twin of Elf,” the sisters say. “They’re basically the same film. A man lost in New York at Christmas, just trying to feel connected.”
Dan In Real Life (2007), Peter Hedges
A widowed advice columnist brings his three daughters to a family reunion, only to fall for a woman who complicates everything. This is the warmest entry on the list, and the Serranos’ designated comfort film. “We watch it every year, but especially when the family gets together,” they share. They share how Steve Carell’s performance is understated and sincere, while Juliette Binoche brings a soft glow to the film. “By the end, our cheeks always hurt from smiling.”
