|
|
Joyeux Noël
2005 Drama / War
Review
Joyeux Noël, the second full-length film
from French director Christian Carion, is a stylised account of a true occurrence in World
War One – spontaneous outbreaks of fraternisation between soldiers on opposite sides of
the trenches at Christmas in 1914. It’s an incredibly moving story given the context
and underscores the utter folly and naked barbarity of the war. It is easy to see
why the German and French military were so ruthless in suppressing all knowledge of it
(although news did leak into the British press at the time). The film goes
some way to capturing the nobility and emotional power of the true story, but is weakened
by its artificial narrative construction and some far too obvious attempts to play up
the emotion.
A more experienced director would probably have avoided the pitfalls which Christian Carion falls into. The biggest problem with this film is that it is over-dramatised, to the extent that much of it just doesn’t ring true. There are just too many elements which, although drawn from factual accounts, feel painfully contrived. The very idea of a beautiful concert singer and her tenor boyfriend slipping off to the Western Front to sing Christmas Carols just reeks of sentimentality and takes away a lot of the realism and truth of the situation. Worse, there happens to be an Anglican priest on hand who can give a midnight mass to the united troops. And if that’s not enough irksome credibility stretching, the next day the happily united soldiers take turns to shelter in each other’s trenches when the distant artillery units open fire. It’s far-fetched to the point of absurdity, yet, for all this creaking artifice, the whole thing is played with such sincerity that it still manages to bring a lump to the throat. To see how the film should have been made, one only has to watch Jean Renoir’s humanist masterpiece La Grande illusion (1937), which covers similar territory but with far less schmaltz and far greater impact. Although Joyeux Noël is beautifully filmed and well acted, it feels strangely remote and detached from reality – it’s hard to believe that it portrays a real event. The gruesome battle scenes near the start of the film are very quickly forgotten and the film quickly sacrifices realism for artistic style and dramatic impact. Far from the familiar images of destruction and misery, the film portrays the Western Front as a Winter Wonderland, where soldiers wear pristine clean uniforms, can laugh easily and bear no scars of battle. How can an audience believe in the truth of the story – that enemy soldiers really did fraternise at Christmas in 1914 – when it’s quite obvious that what we are seeing is an obviously sanitised view of history? Whilst it is easy to pick up on its defects, it cannot be denied that Joyeux Noël is still a moving and rewarding piece of cinema. The sequence in which the unnatural silence in No Man’s Land is broken by a German rendition of “Silent Night, Holy Night” is instantly cathartic, utterly poignant – although this may be due to one’s awareness that this unlikely event really did happen. Another touching scene is where the soldiers clear away the bodies of their fallen comrades – if such a spirit of cooperation between the nations of Europe had existed at a higher level, much of the tragedy of the Twentieth Century could have been avoided. Whilst the film may fail to live up to its potential, it does at least bring home to us the moral of the real-life story it portrays, namely that Mankind can, when it chooses, act spontaneously to make the world a better place, to build bridges rather than blow them up. In spite of what history may tell us, we may not be destined to wipe each other from the face of the Earth. There is hope, perhaps. Merry Christmas. © James Travers 2006 Write a review for this film...User Comments
How do you rate this film?
|
Director:
Christian Carion
Starring: Diane Kruger, Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Dany Boon, Gary Lewis Synopsis
It is 24th December 1914. Five months into World War I, regiments of French and
Scottish troops face off their German opponents in the muddy, snow-covered wastes of No
Man’s Land. After some fierce fighting, a strange lull has descended on the trenches.
The Germans have even started to put up Christmas trees. A tenor, Nikolaus Sprink,
is called away from his unit to sing before Kaiser Wilhelm and a gathering of German officers
at a nearby country house. He is accompanied by his lover, Anna Sörensen.
When Nikolaus insists on returning to his comrades in the trenches to sing that night,
Anna persuades him to take her with him. After the tenor has sung “Silent
Night”, a volley of applause erupts from the French and British trenches. Officers
from the three sides meet and agree a ceasefire for that night. The men who had
only a day before been ordered to kill one another leave their trenches to exchange greetings
and modest gifts of chocolate and drink. A Scottish priest gives a mass and Anna
sings “Ave Maria”. The break in hostilities continues into Christmas Day, when the
soldiers agree to bury their dead. Others make use of the unexpected peace to play
football or card games. They take cover in each other’s trenches when artillery
barrages break out. The next day, it’s business as usual. When the Generals
hear what has happened, they are outraged. In their eyes, fraternisation equates
to treason…
Credits
 More French Drama  More French War |
   |
© filmsdefrance.com 2009