Re-watched with Karolyn (for the second time this holiday season) in preparation for Karolyn's podcast debut. She served as resident LOVE ACTUALLY expert during our appearance on Michael G. Smith's White City Cinema Radio Hour. To give our freewheeling discussion a listen, head here. While Michael and I explain how we learned to stop worrying and love LOVE ACTUALLY, the wise Karolyn explains why the picture was always great in the first place.

"Of the world of modern romantic comedies, so shaped by Richard Curtis' pen (BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY, NOTTING HILL, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL), I once knew naught. This, despite my great affection for the rom-coms of the 30s and 40s. It took a connoisseur like my wife to clue me in."

To read the rest of my Cine-File writeup from a few years back, scroll down to the "Also Recommended" section.

I am bursting with love for this film. It's everything I love; everything life and cinema should be: Paris, the left, music, love, creativity. This is a formally inventive look back on Agnes Varda's great, long life and career (and she is still going strong). My love for it overflows, gushes into this box, this container to fill with words. I felt tears of joy sting my face when, towards the end, I beheld the "house of cinema."