You already know the films that cannot be missing from your Christmas menu, How beautiful it is to live! until love in fact. Therefore, it is always appreciated when something new is incorporated into a menu that no matter how much we enjoy it, we never stop enjoying it. Maybe the last Christmas classic (not even a contender) is Those who remainwhich in Spain can be seen in streaming thanks to MovistarPlus+.
Those who remain (The leftovers) is, to date, the last feature film of Alexander Payneone of the most unique voices in American cinema. In their curriculum, they appear as unmissable monuments The descendantswith George Clooney in one of his best roles, and between drinks. The latter stars the same actor who was in charge of Those who remain, Paul Giamatti. We tell you why Those who remain should inaugurate your cinematic advent calendar.
What is “Those Who Remain” about?
In a boarding school lost in the snow, people’s minds are gradually conquered by euphoria. The Christmas holidays are approaching and the students will return home, where their wealthy parents will welcome them with no less lavish open arms. Except for a few boys, condemned to stay, for various reasons, at boarding school during the holidays. One of them is played by a Dominique Sessa so inspired that we have to take my word for it that it was his first time in front of a camera.
The teacher in charge of the children is played by Paul Giamatti. His character is a moving source of unhappiness: he suffers from cross-hairs, a disease that sours his body odor, and he has, perhaps to cushion it all, a slight alcohol problem. His character doesn’t help either: the students, especially Angus (that’s the name of Sessa’s character), hate his stiffness and his almost military discipline. And with these wickers, Christmas begins for both of them.
A shady James Stewart teaching history
Any movie that takes place at Christmas, even Die hardis aware that he is measuring himself against the cathedral How beautiful it is to live! on his land. and in Those who remainsome of that spirit seeps into its plot. The holidays are not a place of reconciliation (or rather of mutual discoveries) between a teacher and a student who had a certain mutual hatred.
The professor played by Paul Giamatti is a man who knows he is at the end of the road: his dreams have not come true and he, like the children, is hospitalized in this place. On the other hand, and in his case, the confinement is permanent. No one is waiting for him at home and his hopes have been scribbled in chalk on blackboards that no one looks at.
Angus, although at first glance he resembles the classic school head popular with girls, is not far removed from the dramatic loneliness of his teacher. And the snow, the meditations of Marcus Aurelius and a beautiful scene in a history museum bring them together.
However, if there is How beautiful it is to live! In Those Who Remain is his message that every life matters and counts, and that the effect of the most insignificant and forgettable man on the existence of his fellow men can be permanent. Even in the case of a man, like Giamatti’s professor, who “doesn’t even dare to dream a complete dream,” as the memorable cook he plays tells him. Da’Vine Joy Randolph and who won an Oscar for his role.
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