Montrealer who directed National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation back in town for 35th anniversary screening in 4K

If you ask Jeremiah S. Chechik, director of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, what his favourite Christmas movie is, he has an easy answer: “Bad Santa!” The Montreal native who went on to have a career as a photographer, filmmaker and artist never expected he’d be known for broad comedy. “I wanted to do small, intimate films,” he says. He was reluctant to even take on Christmas Vacation because he “was really quite snobbish,” he says. “Oh God, a broad comedy. But it was my first movie and I had very good advice from Kathleen Kennedy, who said, ‘Take it, do your best and just embrace it. Then do another one.’”

Not only did the film go on to be a massive success at the box-office, it was #1 for a month (something unheard of these days), and the film became part of an annual rotation of Christmas classics on TV. Thirty-five years after the film’s release, Jeremiah S. Chechik is back in his hometown to present a series of animated screenings of the film’s dubbed French version at Club Soda, with a more intimate Q&A for the original English-language version at Cinéma du Parc on Sunday.

Chechik spent his childhood in lower Westmount, but says he spent most of his time around Jean-Talon and in Old Montreal, as well as the area between St-Denis and Parc. “That’s my Montreal,” he says. He would go on to study theatre in McGill. He never wanted to act. “No, never,” he says. “I wanted to direct.” 

At the time he attended McGill, he says it was an exciting place. A lot of American artists were studying with them due to the Vietnam war. It felt like a central hub for culture and innovation. He remembers studying under Harry Anderson, a professor from the English department, who was “very provocative and very interesting. That period was very influential on my sensibilities.” 

Chechik always kept up with cinema chez-nous (he name-drops Michel Brault as an influence, and speaks about his friendship with the recently departed Jean-Marc Vallée), despite what he saw as the lack of opportunities here for a young anglophone at the time. “Unless you worked at the NFB and to do that, you needed to be a made man… or woman, but mostly man at the time,” you weren’t going to get a shot to make any films in Quebec.

He went on to become a commercial photographer, then eventually work in film. Despite his reluctance to make Christmas Vacation, he was soon totally immersed. “I wasn’t trying to please everyone, I was just trying to please myself. I always felt that if I thought something is funny, maybe one other person will laugh,” he says. Chechik felt that the film had a strong foundation with a strong John Hughes script. Hughes also served as the film’s producer, and effectively gave Chechik carte-blanche. If the studio had notes or issues, Chechik says he’d agree, then tell them to double-check with John — who was busy shooting and rarely answered the phone. He’d usually get his way in the end. 

For a long time, Chechik put some distance between himself and the film. “I didn’t watch it for many, many, many years. Then I was invited to do a Q&A at the American Cinematheque, I think about 20 years go, and I sat in the audience with multi-generational people spouting their favourite lines. It was maybe the first time I could watch it semi-objectively and it was a pretty funny film. Before that, with every scene I’d just recall everything that was going on on set that day — you know, complications and the intensity, arguments that weren’t so fun, the lunacy of it all. But as I get more distant from it, I can embrace it as more of a gift from the universe.”

Chechik went on to have a fairly successful career as a film and TV director. He made movies like Benny and Joon and The Avengers. His TV credits include Rogue, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Helix and Reign. He now directs theatre and is also a visual artist. “I’m a master of none,” he jokes. 

As someone who has worked in the film industry for decades, Chechik has some questions about the future. The incoming Trump administration worries him incredibly as someone who now lives in America. He also wonders about A.I.’s impact on filmmaking. “For me, it’s more about how it will impact how film is financed rather than creatively,” he explains. “I just can’t imagine A.I. writing something based on the human experience. I even think it can be a tool to expand the visual language of film, when appropriate.” Having worked in Hollywood for a long time, he notes that, over the years, the marketing department had a bigger and bigger place at every negotiation table. “I think they will advocate for A.I., punching in names or genres, even scripts, to decide if it will make money or not and whether it will be made or not.”

A 4K version of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation will be presented at Cinéma du Parc followed by a Q&A on Sunday, Dec. 22, 2:30 p.m.

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