Joyeux Noel
March. 03,2006 PG-13France, 1914, during World War I. On Christmas Eve, an extraordinary event takes place in the bloody no man's land that the French and the Scots dispute with the Germans…
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Simply Perfect
I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Let's admit it, we're a rather conflict-loving and aggressive species, willing to spill the blood of our own about any kind of disagreement, however ridiculous. Yet sometimes the matters dividing us yield to the matters uniting.Apparently, that was the case on the Christmas Eve of 1914 somewhere along the front lines of the World War I. Only several months into the course of war, still not entirely broken with its horrors and each other's monstrosity, with the first chemical weapon attacks still to come, people could still view that war as a giant game their nations decided to play, without investing their personal hatred into it. Consider all that, the likelihood of cultural tastes and of religious background, and the Christmas spirit itself - and you would realize that the true events behind the story of Joyeux Noel are much more likely than it would seem at first.This film does avoid the sharp edges here and there, making the story of fraternization among the enemy troops almost inevitable. The officers conveniently know each other's language and have personal motives for softening up towards the enemy, the common soldiers have snacks and booze to exchange, there's even a cat that loves to cross the front line and is beloved on the both sides.But don't let yourself be fooled by this seeming easiness. This is still war, and at no time you might expect people to just drop their weapons and start dancing and singing and hippie loving each other. Even in the most peaceful moments there's some unspoken tension, and there are still people who take things personally and for whom the war has already taken its toll. And that shaky balance between the humanity of you as a person and the duty imposed on you as a soldier is something that Joyeux Noel conveys beautifully.Yet while you are watching this film, you can't help coming back to the same thought over and over again. If there were no orders from above, would those people actually fight each other? Do the common soldiers feel the need to do it, the need to destroy and to kill? And it makes you realize how different the world was a century ago, when Europe was still mostly monarchical and deeply connected from within, with the Kaiser and the Russian Emperor cousins, with no ever-reaching propaganda we have today. That was still the time when the ideological differences might be a major concern somewhere in the higher cabinets, but for the regular people the only major difference was the language - the rest was the same. That implicit unity was destroyed in the flames of two world wars, and then painfully rebuilt. So Europe's been lucky to become the place where wars don't make sense anymore. And that sentiment, "there's no reason to make war on someone who's exactly like you", is probably the most universally understood anti-military recipe our civilization ever created. And at times when war is such a profitable business for some, it's the films like Joyeux Noel that help us not to fall for the agenda of bloodthirstiness again.
The reason why I decided to sit down and watch this movie is because I heard about it and decided that it looked like an interesting movie and certainly one which will demonstrate the pointlessness of stuff like this. When I found it I decided to sit down and watch it and this movie succeeds in what it was trying to do.The plot is that as the French, German and Scottish armies are fighting World War One, they all decide one night to cease fire - Christmas Eve. As the sides come out of their trenches they share photographs, items such as champagne and have a musical performance by German opera singers (one who happens to be in the war, the other is his girlfriend) and a mass. The next day they can't go through with killing people who a few hours ago were considered friends. They then decide to hold the cease fire for a little longer to collect dead bodies and bury them and after that they have a football match.There are a few complaints with this movie so I'll just list them. The action is awful. I know it might be a nitpick because there is only 2 action scenes in this movie but it's the kind where I had no idea what is going on. I would also say it is easy to tell that Diane Kruger and Benno Furmann were dubbed in their singing voices, I mean both do pull through really good performances but this is really obvious.Everything else however is really good, I'd say one of my favourite scenes in this movie is when the medic/priest is asked to go back to the parish by another, higher priest and then the higher priest gives a sermon on why killing the Germans who they once considered friends is good, and this isn't an over-the-top shout (nor is any other person who tries to say killing the opposing sides they shared stuff with is a good thing).The acting is fantastic, the writing is really good and so is the directing and the cinematography. Everything the movie wants to say is said really well and it was certainly right to give it a nomination for best foreign language film (although how did that work when three languages are spoken and they're pretty well evened out).My advice is if you want something to watch for Christmas this year then this is certainly one I'd suggest you'd consider. If you're an atheist or non-Christian (which I am) then I'd also suggest checking this one out. If you like War movies then this doesn't really have the action of one but it does have the drama of one. If you're looking for some kind of blend then I'd also suggest this.
Joyeux Noel or Merry Christmas should be shown every year on television. It is beautiful movie about the true meaning of Christmas. The director does a brilliant job in depicting three military units like the Germans, French, and the Scottish who are fighting the first Christmas away from their loved ones and facing an invisible enemy. While they stop and have informal and unauthorized ceasefire on Christmas Eve. The soldiers whether German, Scottish, or French begin a platonic fraternization of brotherhood. It's nice to see a film about war that isn't. As they become friends, they share good times even for a brief time. Their leaders will face the consequences of resisting to continue battling in no mans land. Yet there are beautiful moments like when they start singing together and playing music. It's still a great film and should be viewed around the holiday season.
*Spoiler/plot- 2005, Christmas Eve 1914 on a WW1 battlefield a momentous event changed the lives of soldiers from France, Germany, and England (Scotland). An Oscar nominated film tells the true-life story of the spontaneous Christmas Eve truce declared by Scottish, French, and German trench troops in WW1. The enemies leave their weapons behind for one night as they band together in brotherhood and forget about the brutalities and military discipline of war.*Special Stars- Diana Kruger, Daniel Bruht, Benno Furmann *Theme- Hollywood film business is a crazy impressionable system.*Trivia/location/goofs- The History Channel did an extensive documentary on this mystical event. This fictional narrative adds more attractive trivia to the real event. The voice singing of the two German characters is stunning; were they dubbed or not? They were DUBBED.*Emotion- An enjoyable film. A must see and powerful film of a real startling wartime event commemorated even today yearly in Belgium on the very spot it occurred.