panettone

They hit the slopes and raced down a slalom, trying to finish a slice of panettone before reaching the finish line.

“He really ate the panettone!”

Nominally about a plain but lucky-in-adultery piano bar singer and the wealthy Milanese, salt-of-the-earth Romans and tuxedoed bons vivants who surround him, the film previewed decades of gleefully vulgar, broad and formulaic Christmas comedies that earned a fortune and came to be known, after the cakes Italians devour during the season, as “Cinema Panettone.”

Cloying Hallmark Christmas movies set in European cities may be all the rage this year, but in Italy, they do not come anywhere close to the cultural juggernaut that once was cinema panettone.

To celebrate the anniversary, the film’s producer, writer and stars carved up an enormous panettone the size of a fire hydrant and participated in a weekend of cinepanettone-themed festivities.