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Customer Reviews of Joyeux Noel (Widescreen)

"O Come All Ye Faithful"
French, Scottish and German soldiers come together to celebrate Christmas in the trenches of World War 1 in a profoundly moving film about the humanist in all of us. It is music that draws these disparate enemies together on one cold and dark wintry night in 1914 when an unforeseen harmony between soldiers from three countries suddenly becomes one. <
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>With a cast of Scottish, German and French actors all speaking their own language, writer-director Christian Carion has fashioned a deeply moving and uplifting piece. The film begins as one of the German soldiers Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Furmann), a famous tenor in civilian life, leaves the battle lines briefly to rejoin his lover and stage partner, soprano Anna Sorensen (Diane Kruger), for a small command performance away from the Western front. <
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>Because their time together is so short, she insists on accompanying him back to the trenches; there, the two stage a concert for the German troops. What happens then is simple, beautiful, and believably spontaneous. In the midst of the concert, the bagpipes of the Scottish regiments join the couple across the divide. <
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>As Sprink places Christmas trees onto the field, the three commanders, the French Audebert (Guillaume Canet), the German-Jewish Horstmayer (Daniel Bruhl) and the Scottish Gordon (Alex Ferns) meet and declare the truce that spreads to Christmas Day and includes a deeply moving service in Latin said by Rev. Palmer, an Anglican priest turned soldier (Gary Lewis). <
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>Tired and battle-weary these soldiers who slaughtered each other from trenches put down their weapons to share wine and food, exchange photographs of their loved ones and memories, and even find time to play a game of soccer in the snow. Later the men's superior officers would regard it as fraternizing with the enemy and make them pay for it, each commanding officer is chastised in different ways. <
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>Carion really manages to capture the horror of war while presenting the story so subtly that he avoids melodrama and at the same time shows the faintly goofy affinity between the various combatants. <
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>Joyeux Noël succeeds in portraying its men almost as contract players who see the ridiculousness of their situation and decide to do something about it, finding a cocooned, floating moment of cogent mutiny that has ultimately no place in the politics taking place around them. Mike Leonard November 06. <
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The true meaning of Christmas
Joyeux Noel is outstanding. It's a Christmas movie that gets to the true meaning of the holiday while avoiding all the annoying, hollow cliches about the "Christmas spirit" that flood the market every holiday season (in corny TV shows and movies like The Santa Clause.) <
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>It is also a war movie that asks the right questions about war without demonizing or blaming any particular worldview. Some of the best war films challenge the viewer - Platoon comes to mind - but, unfortunately, leave their audience depressed and in despair. As hellish as war is, as much evil as men commit against each other, sometimes mankind's best characteristics are revealed in battle. Joyeux Noel celebrates what's best in mankind without being trite, sappy or silly. <
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>The religious messages are impossible to avoid. The director, Christian Carion, superbly demonstrated, through the characters, Father Palmer and the Bishop, the contrast between the loving, caring, humble service Christ demonstrated and the rigid, dogmatic, political and sometimes hateful lives of the members of the religious establishment. (Sadly, the Bishop's words were taken from an actual sermon given at Westminster Abbey during World War I.) <
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>As a work of art, Joyeux Noel is top-notch. The acting is superb, the sets and costumes are well-done and the soundtrack is beautiful. It is moving and funny, happy and sad, captivating but moderately paced, all at the appropriate spots. As we enter the holiday season, I can't think of a movie I would more highly recommend to watch in the coming weeks (or anytime, really.)

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Friendly enemies
This is the best "anti-war" movie I have ever seen. But in a good way. Normally I don't care for movies that try to tell me how horrible war is. How stupid do they think people are? "It is bad when people are killed" or "war is horrible" the movies tell us. Oh really? Well thank you Captain Obvious. "Joyeux Noel" takes an entirely different approach. <
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>Would you want to kill someone with whom you had shared a glass of champagne just minutes earlier? Would you want to kill someone who had been on your soccer team just minutes earlier? Would you want to kill someone who had just given you a chocolate bar and returned your lost wallet? When was the last time you heard questions like that asked in a war movie. I'm going to bet never. <
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>This movie is the true story about the Christmas truce in December of 1914. The Scots, The French and the Germans all laid down arms Christmas eve and Christmas day. It started out with each side singing Christmas carols and ended up with the soldiers on all sides joining on the battlefield to exchange food and drink, play cards, play soccer, and on and on. <
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>You know how when you are traveling and you meet someone who is from your hometown, or you meet someone who is friends with one of your friends, there is this almost instant bond created? That's what this movie is all about. Its about soldiers coming face to face with "the enemy" and finding friends. The ultimate "anti-war" sentiment lies in knowing that under different circumstances you would be good friends with the people you are trying to kill. <
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>One of the more interesting (and sad) parts of the movie is how the war officials on all sides responded to the Christmas truce. But you'll have to watch the movie yourself to see what happened. <
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>There is not much action or violence in this movie; if that is what you are looking for you should go somewhere else. You should see this movie. It is one of the more powerful movies I have seen in the last several years. <
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>My rating: 5 out of 5