Jeremiah Chechik has attended plenty of screenings of his 1989 comedy directorial debut National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. But the upcoming shows in his hometown of Montreal will be unlike anything he’s seen before.
For several years now, Montreal’s Club Soda has hosted screening the holiday classic’s French-language dub, with an interactive twist.
Inspired by screenings of the cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show, actors on stage mirror scenes from the film while audience members, many dressed as characters from the film, shout out pre-determined lines in reaction to specific moments.
Chechik will see it first-hand this weekend, in all its weird and wonderful Québécois glory.
“I could be weeping profusely, or burying my head in my hands,” he told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal with a chuckle. ” I have no idea.”
‘The most popular Christmas film here in Quebec’
The event is the brainchild of organizer Jarrett Mann, who puts on similar screenings year-round of French dubs of iconic movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ghostbusters, Die Hard and Slap Shot.
But National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, he says, holds a special place in Quebecers’ hearts.
After all, the French-language version has been airing on TV in la belle province for more than three decades under the title Le sapin a des boules, which translates to The Tree Has Balls.
“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I think it’s the most popular Christmas film here in Quebec,” Mann said.
It also happens to have been directed by Chechik, who was born and raised in Montreal and studied theatre at McGill University before moving to Toronto and, eventually, Los Angeles.
When Mann fired off an email to Chechik inviting him to attend this year’s screenings to mark the movie’s 35th anniversary, he didn’t expect to hear back.
“He answered pretty much within the hour and he said, ‘I’m in,'” Mann said. “That, to me, was a Christmas miracle.”
Chechik piped in: “It did take me the full hour to get over the shock and awe of actually receiving the letter — and to kind of dig in and really kind of uncover what the film has become in Quebec.”
‘A film that belongs to the world’
Christmas Vacation is the star-studded third film in National Lampoon magazine’s Vacation series. Written and co-produced by John Hughes, it stars Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo and Randy Quaid with supporting roles by Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki, to name a few.
It follows Griswold family patriarch Clark (Chase) and his comically ill-fated efforts to have a good, old-fashioned Christmas.
Chechik remains in awe of the movie’s lasting power. Not a Christmas goes by, he says, where he’s not asked to do some kind of event or press about it.
“I’m very, very lucky in so many ways that this film has kind of had its life, you know, kind of resurrected year after year as something that is way beyond me,” he said. “This is a film that belongs to the world.”
For Mann, the movie resonates not because of its slapstick humour, but because of the emotional core that underpins it.
There are a lot of iconic scenes in the film, but Mann’s favourite is the one where Clark Griswold is in his attic, growing sentimental as he watches old home movies from holidays past.
“It justifies everything in the movie after. It’s his whole motivation for why he’s trying to get the family together. He’s trying to recreate his childhood memories,” Mann said. “I get choked up every time.”
Le sapin a des boules is screening at Club Soda on Friday and Saturday, with Chechik in attendance. The original English version, minus the actors and interactivity, will air at Cinéma du Parc on Sunday afternoon, followed by a Q&A with the director.
Chechik says he’s looking forward to seeing the old film through a fresh lens. The fact that it’s in his hometown is an added bonus.
“I’ll look for any excuse to go to Montreal,” he said. “Nothing warms a Los Angeles resident [more] than getting on a plane and going to Montreal in the winter.”
