
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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Reviews
An absolute waste of money
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
The acting in this movie is really good.
Joyeux Noel is a film that beautifully balances the horrors of war with the spirit of Christmas. What makes this heart-warming tale even more fascinating is that it is based on actual events during the first World War. It is well-made, well-acted and well-executed. I'm glad I got to see this film.
On Christmas Eve 1914, while the Great War degenerated in a bloody stalemate with men entrenching themselves and slaughtering each other in mass, Some of them decided to lay down their guns and make a truce to celebrate Christmas without any bloodshed.They shared their meals, exchanged cherished ones pictures and for this very special Holy Night, learned to like each other like brothers instead of hating each other to death.Joyeux Noel is telling us this true story about soldiers who regained their human being status for one night and one day. It is very moving from start to finish. It will melt your heart and bring you a lot of tears.It is a real ode to Fraternity, Peace and the Christmas spirit. Its message should be spread throughout the world and unfortunately today many people are still dying because of the ignorance of mankind too eager to kill each other rather than understand each other and live in peace.So to the world, Take the inspiration from those men who dared to disobey their superiors who never cared for them anyway and make peace. Try to understand each other. We are all the same despite our differences. That the message of Joyeux Noel and what a powerful message it is. Merry Christmas everyone ♥
Based on the Christmas truce of 1914, this is an excellent, thought- provoking and often very moving film with a powerful message of humanity. Contrary to the propaganda at the time and, in some cases (rather worryingly), more recently, the First World War was not fought for the sake of freedom. It was fought for the sake of the vaulting ambition of imperialists on both sides. There was not a great difference between fighting for Liberty, Equality, Fraternity / King and Country or Kaiser and the Fatherland, something which is illustrated very effectively throughout the film. As in reality, the British, French and German political and military leaders in their ivory towers came down very hard on their subordinates when they learned of the truce. There is one rather unbelievable development but the film is otherwise very well written and directed by Christian Carion. This is the first French film that I have seen but only about a third of it was actually in French with the remainder being in English or German. It was a co-production with Britain, Germany, Belgium and Romania, which is rather appropriate given the film's positive attitude towards international cooperation.Daniel Brühl, one of the few actors in the film with whom I was already familiar, gives the best performance as the German Lieutenant Horstmayer. The commander of the German 93rd Infantry Regiment may be a bit of a slow-burner compared to some of the other characters but he eventually develops into the most interesting character in the film. Horstmayer initially seems to be the stereotypical German military marionette. However, he is shown to be a good and decent man when he agrees to the Christmas Eve ceasefire with the Scots and the French. Although he is Jewish, he is deeply moved by the impromptu Christian service held in No Man's Land and involving soldiers from all three nationalities. He is initially contemptuous of the tenor turned private Nikolaus Sprink, played quite well by Benno Fürmann, but he warms to him after the truce. Horstmayer often speaks lovingly of his wife of two years, something to which the Scottish and French can relate, and in a poignant moment it is revealed that she is French.Guillaume Canet is likewise excellent as Horstmayer's French counterpart Lieutenant Camille René Audebert. In his first scene, he is as apprehensive as his men prior to a major assault on the German trenches, becoming physically sick as he has been through it before and knows just what to expect. However, this is not the only thing that he is worried about as his wife is living in Lens in the occupied part of France and he has not had contact with her in months. She was heavily pregnant when they last spoke and he does not even know whether she has given birth to a boy or a girl. Audebert has a nice relationship with his aide-de-comp Private Ponchel, who starts out as a comic relief character but has one of the most moving scenes in the film when he describes his daily ritual of 10 o'clock coffee with his beloved mother. Danny Boon excels as Ponchel, displaying a flair for both drama and comedy. During the truce, Audebert and Horstmayer seem to bond more than any of the other soldiers and it is suggested that the two would have been friends if they had met before the war. Carion announced recently that is thinking of a sequel focussing on the two of them after the war and I really hope that he does make it as it is an excellent idea. There are so many things that could be explored, not least the discrimination that Horstmayer would face as a Jew once the Nazis rose to power.Canet's then wife Diane Kruger has the only substantial role of any woman in the film as Sprink's fiancée and fellow opera star Anna Sørensen from neutral Denmark. While Kruger is a wonderful actress, I found it incredibly hard to believe that a woman would have been allowed into the trenches under any circumstances in 1914. She does have a pass from Kaiser Wilhelm II but this is merely a plot device designed to make it seem plausible. Carion was essentially trying to shoehorn a woman into the plot so that it would not be entirely male dominated but it does not work at all as it just rings false. I would have preferred it if they had kept the exploration of the pain of separation from loved ones more subtle, as in the examples that I mentioned earlier. The film also has strong performances from Gary Lewis as the Scottish priest Father Palmer, Steven Roberston as Jonathan, Alex Ferns as Lt. Gordon, Bernard Le Coq as the French general (whose identity I correctly guessed), Ian Richardson as the jingoistic, racist Bishop and Thomas Schmauser as the German heir apparent Crown Prince Wilhelm, the only historical character in the film.Overall, this is an excellent anti-war film which illustrates that people are basically the same in spite of national borders and different languages. In that sense, it is surprisingly upbeat and perhaps even a little life affirming. For the season that's in it and given the subject matter, I feel that it is appropriate to wish a Joyeux Noël, Frohe Weihnachten and Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates it and peace and goodwill to everyone else.
If war is futile the trench warfare style of fighting which defined World War I is the most futile of all. Men dug into trenches a few hundred yards apart waiting until the men of one side are ordered to come up out of the trenches and charge at the enemy. Ordered to their deaths as these men are inevitably slaughtered. In this movie the Germans on one side and the French and Scottish on the other are fighting over a tiny, inconsequential strip of land in eastern France. The war was never going to be won or lost here. But men would die here. And for what? The film begins, rather brilliantly, with scenes of children from each of the three countries reciting patriotic speeches about their country's superiority and the inherent evilness of the enemy. And then we meet the soldiers. These aren't evil men. These are young men who just want to survive. Young men ordered off to war by men who sit comfortably far away from the front lines, protected from the savagery and true cost of war. The men in the trenches have retained their humanity. Their leaders, as will become painfully obvious by the film's end, have lost theirs.The remarkable events depicted in this film actually did happen. Sure there are some things changed and embellished to make a true story into a movie but the heart of the story remains. And what a story it is. Soldiers stopping the senseless killing and laying down their arms to come together to celebrate Christmas. In doing so they come to realize they have more in common with the enemy than they would have imagined. Bonds are formed. Which will of course make going back to slaughtering one another somewhat difficult. But that is a concern that is reserved for the movie's end. How good is the movie that leads towards that inevitably uncomfortable ending? Pretty good indeed. It's a heartwarming story. Character development is rushed or, in some cases, nonexistent which is a little disappointing. More time spent getting to know these soldiers would make us so much more emotionally invested in their fate. But the movie still manages to pack a serious emotional punch. Once the story sets itself up there are times where things move a little slowly and the movie seems to get bogged down a little. But for whatever little quibbles you may have with the film the good far outweighs the bad. The performances are uniformly excellent, the cinematography is wonderful and the message is inspiring. There is so much more that can bring us together than there is that can tear us apart. The men in the trenches figured this out. If only their leaders had done the same.
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