How I'm Spending My Saturday

Depuis 2006

The Thames and the breathtaking Albert Bridge in London. You may recognize it from Sliding Doors where it plays an important symbolic role.

Today—as always on the last Saturday in January—I am teaching my most beloved course of the year: The Big Christmas Course. Even as this essay is being posted, I am speaking to an inspiring group of participants in my cozy little venue in Copenhagen. My sister creates and serves her signature sandwiches, and my mother is responsible for the cake. And since 2006, when The Big Christmas Course was first launched, my best customers wouldn’t want it any other way.

This course has become a cherished ritual: a 5-hour deep dive into a single theme with fascinating symbolic and mythological undertones—and examples from films that span the entire history of cinema. Every January over the past two decades, we have explored exciting topics such as: shaving in movies, staircases in movies, mirrors in movies, food in movies, art in movies, trains in moves, and …