Holiday gift guide: Presents for cinephiles to enjoy in theaters or at home

Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali in a scene from “Green Book.”Photo: Universal Pictures, Participant and DreamWorks

Movie lovers are easy to buy presents for — just buy them a movie.

The only catch is that they may have seen the movie. However, there are ways to get around that.

一个方法是让them familiar classics in an improved format (such as Blu-ray). Another is to buy them movies they can watch over and over again. And yet another is to buy them movies in sets so expensive they would never dream of buying them for themselves. (After all, these people are burdened by lots of expenses — among them, the fact that they have to buy something foryou.)

The following are suggestions offered with the aforementioned concerns in mind. Plus, I recommend a very special pillow, because face it: You could be watching the greatest film ever made, but if your back is hurting, it might as well be a Guy Ritchie movie.

The Lumbair, an inflatable cushion providing lumbar support, perfect for moviegoers who spend a long time in bad theater seats.Photo: Innotech

The Lumbair

影迷们花很多时间坐着,可以be brutal on the lower back, particularly at a film festival or movie marathon. That’s where the Lumbair comes in. It’s a cushion with a pump attached that inflates and deflates to give back support no matter how awful the chair. I take it everywhere.

$30.www.backrests.ca

Gift cards

This may seem like a cop-out during the holidays, but purchasing gift cards for a cinephile to go to their favorite movie house is a great present.

Keep an eye out for deals, too. TheAlamo Drafthouse, for instance, is offering a $10 Snack Pass for every $50 gift card purchase.

Bogart and Bacall: The Complete Collection

Lauren Bacall andHumphrey Bogart’s four classic films — “To Have and Have Not” (1944), “The Big Sleep” (1946), “Dark Passage” (1947) and “Key Largo” — are on Blu-ray in a new boxed set.

$39.99www.wbshop.com

Director Josef Von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich’s American films together are a gift that keeps on giving.Photo: Criterion Collection

Dietrich and Von Sternberg in Hollywood

These visually opulent classics, from actressMarlene Dietrich and director Josef Von Sternberg, are among the best collaborations between an actress and director in cinema history. The set, from Criterion, includes six films that can be watched again and again: “Morocco,” “Dishonored,” “Shanghai Express,” “Blonde Venus,” “The Scarlet Empress” and “The Devil Is a Woman.”

$62.50www.criterion.com

Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema is a set of 39 Bergman films on 30 Blu-ray discs.Photo: Criterion Collection / Criterion Collection

Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema

The season’s most remarkable home video release is this thing of beauty from the Criterion Collection – 39 films byIngmar Bergman, on 30 Blu-rays, with an accompanying book and five hours of bonus material. Just be careful whom you give this to because they might never leave the house again.

$299.99www.criterion.com

How Did Lubitsch Do It?

This book is a critical appreciation by San Francisco State Professor Joseph McBride about the classic Hollywood director who practically invented the modern comedy and musical genres at the advent of sound.

$40,Columbia University Press

My Life and the Final Days of Hollywood

Bay Area actor and businessman Claude Jarman Jr., the onetime head of the San Francisco International Film Festival, recalls his life as an Oscar winner (“The Yearling”), John Wayne’s son (“Rio Grande”) and other fascinating tidbits during the final years of the studio system.

$14.95,契约书

Where Monsters Walked

Subtitled “California Locations of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, 1925-1965,” this book by Bay Area authors Gail Orwig and Raymond Orwig provide a handy traveler’s guide, packed with photographs, of classic locations. Like, “It Came Beneath the Sea” was shot in San Francisco, but did you know the San Mateo Bridge toll plaza stood in for the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza?

$49.95,MacFarland

Blindspotting

Oakland’sDaveed Diggs and Rafael Casalco-wrote and starred in what The Chronicle has deemedone of the best films of the year. Shot in their hometown, the movie is about a man, on probation, who ponders how he can distance himself from his volatile best friend.

Available on Blu-Ray and DVD, $24.99.Code Black Entertainment

Sorry to Bother You

The other half of Oakland’s one-two punch, BootsRiley writes and directs this unusual movie set in an alternate reality Oakland, about atelemarketerwho gets in deep in the world of corporate greed.

Available on Blu-Ray and DVD, $34.99.20th Century Fox

Incredibles 2

Theslam-bang sequelby Emeryville’s Pixar marks the return of director Brad Bird (“The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille”) to the animated realm. Gosh, the Parr family of superheroes have barely aged a day in the 14 years since the original! Terrific entertainment that delivers.

Available on Blu-Ray and DVD, $39.99.Disney/Pixar

Chronicle staff writer G. Allen contributed to this story.

  • Mick LaSalle
    Mick LaSalleMick LaSalle is The San Francisco Chronicle's film critic. Email: mlasalle@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MickLaSalle