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Culture
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Christmas films
圣诞电影
The snowball effect
雪球效应
Holiday films are cheesy, mindless and widely loved. Why?
圣诞电影甜腻、没脑子，但备受喜爱，为什么？
The story is set in a town called Hope Springs—your first clue to the film’s schmaltz—which hosts an annual snow-sculpture contest.
故事设定在一个名为“希望泉”的小镇——你发现这是一部煽情电影的第一个线索——这个小镇每年都会举办一场冰雕比赛。
A local Michelangelo has sculpted a snowman with a chiselled face and rippling muscles.
当地的一位米开朗基罗雕刻出了一个雪人，它有着凿刻般棱角分明的面容和起伏饱满的肌肉。（注：米开朗基罗是文艺复兴时期的著名艺术家。）
On a whim, a young widow drapes a red scarf over the frozen figure; naturally, magic brings the ice-cold hottie, shivering, to life.
一位年轻的寡妇一时兴起，将一条红围巾披在冰雕上，水到渠成地，魔法让这个冰冷的火辣帅哥颤抖着活过来了。
Recently released on Netflix, “Hot Frosty” is a truly absurd Christmas film.
最近在网飞开播的《这个雪男不太冷》是一部着实荒唐的圣诞电影。
No one in Hope Springs seems perturbed by a snow sculpture becoming a fully sentient being; one person simply shrugs: “It’s Christmas.”
在希望泉小镇，似乎没有任何人对冰雕变成了一个完全有感知能力的生物而感到不安，一个人只是耸耸肩：“毕竟是圣诞节。”
Nor do viewers seem to mind the movie’s outlandish premise.
观众似乎也不介意电影离奇的前提。
Subscribers spent nearly 52m hours watching the film in the three weeks after its release; it has been one of the most popular movies on Netflix, enjoying nearly 35 times the demand of an average film in America, according to Parrot Analytics, a data firm.
订阅者在影片开播后的三周内观看这部电影近5200万个小时，据数据公司“鹦鹉分析”称，它已经成了网飞最受欢迎的电影之一，需求量几乎是美国普通电影需求量的35倍。
“Hot Frosty” points to a hot area of entertainment: lighthearted, generally predictable, sometimes terrible Christmas films that people nonetheless love.
《这个雪男不太冷》指向了一个热门娱乐领域：轻松愉快的、大体剧情可预测的、有时甚至是糟糕的圣诞电影依然受到人们的喜爱。
In 2023 144 of them were released worldwide—seven times more than in 2000.
2023年，144部这样的电影在全球范围内上映，是2000年的七倍多。
That was the year when Hallmark’s cable-television network started making festive fare in earnest; in 2024 it is releasing 32 films as part of its annual “Countdown to Christmas” event, in which at least three new films are broadcast every weekend, starting in October.
2000年是霍尔马克有线电视网开始认真制作节日影片的一年，2024年，该电视网将发布32部电影，这是其年度“圣诞倒计时”活动的一部分，从10月开始，每个周末至少播出三部新电影。
The most-watched film made for cable TV this year was Hallmark’s “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story”, loosely inspired by the relationship of Taylor Swift, a pop star, and Travis Kelce, an American-football player.
今年有线电视上收视率最高的电影是霍尔马克的《假日达阵：酋长队爱情故事》，这部电影稍微借鉴了流行歌星泰勒·斯威夫特和美式橄榄球运动员特拉维斯·凯尔塞的恋情。
A large majority of Hallmark films—over 90%—are romances with punny titles such as “To Have and to Holiday”.
霍尔马克的绝大多数电影——超过90%——都是有双关语片名的浪漫喜剧，比如《拥有与假期》。
Brandon Gray and Daniel Pandolph, two of the hosts of “Deck the Hallmark”, a podcast, have analysed around 1,000 Christmas films and observe that they “typically have some sort of baking scene” and “a big decision that has to be made by Christmas”.
布兰登·格雷和丹尼尔·潘道夫是播客节目《打倒霍尔马克》的两位主持人，他们分析了大约1000部圣诞电影，并观察到这些电影“通常都有某种烘焙场景”和“一个必须在圣诞节前做出的重大决定”。
Around 80% of them feature a decorating scene involving homes, gingerbread houses and more.
其中约80%的电影有特别的装饰场景，涉及家、姜饼屋等元素。
Most feature a montage, a hammy film-making technique that is otherwise out of style year-round.
大多数都采用了蒙太奇手法，这是一种做作的电影制作技术，在全年除圣诞节之外的时候都是过时的。
For a long time, Hallmark had the holiday season wrapped up.
长期以来，贺曼公司一直主导着节日市场。（注：贺曼公司从贺卡业务发家，现在已有文具、寝具、数码娱乐、电视频道等多项业务。）
But Netflix and other streamers are getting in on the festive action, tempted by the low budgets—the films generally cost less than $5m—and high returns.
但是网飞和其他流媒体受到低预算（电影成本通常不到500万美元）和高回报的诱惑，也加入了节日行动。
In 2023 Hallmark released 40 original Christmas titles, according to Ampere Analysis, a research firm; meanwhile viewers could stream more than 70 on Netflix (a mix of new offerings and back-catalogue fare).
2023年，据研究公司安培分析称，贺曼发布了40部原创圣诞影片，与此同时，观众可以在网飞上播放70多部（包括新片和过往影片）。
The platform is focusing on romance titles at the expense of productions aimed at children or families.
网飞专注于爱情题材，牺牲了针对儿童或家庭的电影。
Another of the new releases in 2024, “Our Little Secret”, has accumulated nearly 95m hours of viewing.
另一部2024年的新电影《我们的小秘密》已经积累了近9500万小时的观看时长。
Starring Lindsay Lohan, it follows a couple who split up years ago but meet again, unexpectedly, via their new partners.
琳赛·洛翰主演的这部电影讲述了一对多年前就已经分手的情侣，通过各自的新伴侣而意外重逢的故事。
Who likes such sparkly fluff, and why?
到底是谁喜欢这种亮闪闪的无脑电影？为什么喜欢？
Adult Christmas films are mostly watched by women, from millennials upwards.
成人圣诞电影的主要观众是女性，包括千禧一代及年龄更大的群体。
Many are busy preparing presents and food; few have time to sit down and give a film their full attention.
许多人正忙着准备礼物和食物，很少有人有时间坐下来，全神贯注地看一部电影。
The predictable plots, then, are an advantage.
于是可预测的情节就成了一个优势。
“You know what’s going to happen,” Mr Gray says, “and so you can still do the things that you need to do, while also getting into the Christmas spirit.”
“你知道接下来会发生什么，”格雷说，“所以你可以一边继续做你需要做的事，一边感受到圣诞气氛。”
Mr Pandolph adds that after a couple of glasses of mulled wine, it does not matter that the story is naff: in fact, “Your enjoyment of these movies goes up exponentially if you’ve been drinking.”
潘道夫补充说，喝了几杯热葡萄酒后，故事是否老套已经不重要了：事实上，“如果你一直在喝酒，你对这些电影的享受会呈指数级增长”。
Russell Hainline, the writer of “Hot Frosty” and other holiday flicks, says that films such as his offer wish-fulfilment.
拉塞尔·海因林是《这个雪男不太冷》等圣诞电影的编剧，他说这类电影让人美梦成真。
“‘Harry Potter’ has wands and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ has hobbits.
《哈利·波特》有魔杖，《指环王》有霍比特人。
Christmas movies have good people having good things happen to them all the time.”
而圣诞电影有好人，并且总是有好事发生在他们身上。”
The world would be a nicer place, he suggests, if it “was even a little bit more like a Christmas movie”.
他表示，如果世界有一点点像圣诞电影，世界都会变得更加美好。
It is a cheerful idea.
这是一个令人愉快的想法。
In fact, it sounds like a perfect line in a holiday film.
事实上，这听起来正像是圣诞电影中的一句完美台词。
