Here Comes Santa Claus
(aka J'AI RECONTRE LE PERE NOEL)
With: Karen Cheryl (Good Fairy/Teacher), Armand Meffre (Santa Claus), Emeric Chapuis (Simon), Alexia Stresi (Elodie), Jeanne Herviale (Grandmother), Dominique Hulin (Ogre)
English-Language Version:
Plot Outline: Simon, a young boy, is bullied at school by peers and adults alike. While on a field trip to the local airport, Simon and a girlfriend sneak onto a jet liner and visit Santa Claus at the North Pole. The kids' teacher appears to them as a Good Fairy. The kids are kidnapped by a mean Ogre, who plans to eat them. Santa and the Fairy rescue the kids. Santa then goes to Africa to find Simon's parents. When Simon wakes up on Christmas morn, his parents are asleep in the living room.
***
HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS is a delightful musical fantasy, one of the last of a dying genre, and very much in keeping with holiday fantasy of the past.
In fact, twenty years earlier, this film would have fit right in with the Kiddie Matinee classics of Childhood Productions THE CHRISTMAS THAT ALMOST WASN'T) and K. Gordon Murray (SANTA CLAUS AND HIS HELPERS).
There are some wonderful visuals in the film, not the least of which are scenes of Santa driving a full-sized sleigh and reindeers across a wintry wonderland at dusk, an evocative image rarely seen in this genre.
Simon, our hero, looks like he walked right out of Albert Lamorisse's THE RED BALLOON. His cutey-pie teacher, Karen Cheryl, is every boy's fantasy of a sexy surrogate mom. When she breaks into song, its both startling and refreshing.
(We have no way to verify this, but we would bet anything that the woman who dubbed Cheryl's voice for the English Language version was none other then Bebe Neuwirth, star of stage and screen. We'd know that throaty lisp anywhere!)
"I can assure you that Karen Cheryl dubbed herself. She released a lot of English albums, and the throaty lisp is definately Karen! I'm glad you like the movie! There are so many bad reviews about it!
"I also noticed that the songs (and only the songs) were entirely re-shot for the English-Language version. So they weren't even dubbed! They are original songs, reshot for
the English release. And oddly, the photography is much better in the English version!
"And the movie was never released in 3-D. I have no clue why it was shot that way.
"Finally, a scene was cut out of the English version: right before Karen Cheryl gets into the bus, the airport man stops her and asks her out! She gets uncomfortable and declines!"
The music score, by a young Frances Lai, relies heavily on synthesized beats, not unlike an ABBA or "Disco" soundtrack.
This may be the first film in history wherein Santa Claus keeps his list of the world's children not on index cards, parchment or a big ledger, but in a computer database! Primitive though his set-up is, it is still a huge jump for "Mr. Old-Fashioned".
Little Simon's somewhat harrowing journey turns out to be a valuable, multi-faceted life lesson. One theme suggests that sometimes, one must disobey one's elders in order to mature. The school janitor is a creepy, predatory male, and as his alter ego, the Ogre, threatens Simon's very life. Simon learns that corrupt authority must be challenged.
The Ogre is a disgusting, selfish pig, who at one point, even attempts to eat a dachshund grinder!
After some exciting North Pole shenanigans, the film shifts gears wildly, and goes to Africa, where danger and political intrigue rule the day. After being imprisoned by some paranoid revolutionaries, Santa is rescued by brave little black kids, who realize as did Simon that a poisoned establishment must be overthrown.
Another Fairy Tale twist occurs when Santa and the Fairy have a confrontation over their options re: rescuing the kids. We are not used to seeing two beneficent fairy tale icons bickering and yelling, and the effect is disturbing, not unlike what a small child seeing their parents fighting for the first time experiences (an effect that was surely intentional).
All in all, HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS is a wonderful latter-day foreign fairy tale, and alas, one of the last great Santa Claus movies.
Steve Phillips informs us that "HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS was shot in 3-D! It certainly
never played in the U.S. in that format, and I can't even verify it was released in stereoscopic form in France, but it was shot that way."
Video/DVD availability: VHS (New World Video, oop)
(1984, France) color 79 minutes
Lanaca Productions
Screenplay: Christian Gion, Didier Kaminka
Music: Nick-Garrie Hamilton, Frances Lai
Cinematography: Jacques Assuerus
Produced by Christian Gion, Patrick Dealauneux
Directed by Christian Gion
(1985) New World Pictures
Awhile back, Vincent Trembley offered the following valuable updates and observations on this most engaging holiday film:
(02-15-05)
