Joyeux Noel

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****

War is not a subtle subject nor is Joyeux Noel ("Merry Christmas" to us non-Frenchies) a particularly subtle film. But it's a beautiful one: intelligent, heartfelt and perhaps as pure as a relatively mainstream movie on this subject can manage. Writer/director Christian Carion (The Girl from Paris) begins with a shock: nothing bloody, mind you, but something I have not previously encountered in a film. This sets us up nicely for what follows: a worthy addition to the canon of films that are anti-war, anti-government and anti-organized religion. This story of an impromptu "truce" that occurred between battling armies (Germans, French and Scots) on a Christmas Eve during World War I is full of joy, beauty, sadness, irony - and only a little carnage (but what's there does indeed make its point).

There's glorious music to be heard (courtesy of Philippe Rombi's original score and pieces by Franz Grüber, Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel, and John Francis Wade), a multitude of characters to briefly know and care for, and some lovely scenery (much of it in Scotland) on display before shifting to the environs of a Franco-German battlefield. Adding its own luster to the proceedings is the international cast, drawn from Germany (Diane Kruger, Benno Furmann and The Edukators' Daniel Bruhl), France (Guillaume Canet and marvelous old-timers Michel Serrault and the late Suzanne Flon) and Britain (Ian Richardson and the always splendid and unheralded Gary Lewis). The basis of the story itself is true: there were a number of these truce/fraternizations during WWI, much loved by the soldiers and generally despised by the officers at the top.

Watch the DVD interview in which the director explains how he put the film together. It makes a very nice companion piece to his wonderful movie, which should be added to many a holiday viewing list. God knows, it offers more real Christmas spirit than most of what plops out of Hollywood’s mainstream during this - or any - time of year.