Currier and Ives

At Christmastime, when all of Reykjavik is festooned with lights and takes on the ambience of a Currier and Ives painting and there are days and days of celebrations, Miyoko came and stayed with Bobby at the apartment for two weeks.

“All year, we’d build up to it. To this day, I have childhood memories of our main street — the stores, the snow, the trees, the twinkling lights. The whole classic Currier and Ives Christmas. Every time I make these movies, I strive to have those moments.”

We can but hope that this masterly Gothic prequel will banish forever the Currier and Ives version of Dickens’s dark fable.

There's a famous engraving, lithograph, in 1872 from Currier and Ives, which you should look up on the internet because it is a stunning image.

“Still trees and bushes growing. The cabin is rustic knotty pine with a huge fireplace. On the walls someone has hung old maps, Currier and Ives prints, and above the fireplace a deer's head has been mounted, a full stag with developed horns. The people with you admire the decor of the cabin and—”