Product Description

Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee for Best Foreign Film, Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) tells the true-life story of the spontaneous Christmas Eve truce declared by Scottish, French and German troops in the trenches of World War I. Enemies leave their weapons behind for one night as they band together in brotherhood and forget about the brutalities of war. Diane Krüger (Troy), Daniel Brühl (Good Bye Lenin!) and Benno Fürmann (The Princess and the Warrior) head a first-rate international cast in a truly powerful, must-see film.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2162 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2006-11-14
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, German, Latin
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, Portuguese
• Dubbed in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.com
Joyeux Noel captures a rare moment of grace from one of the worst wars in the history of mankind, World War I. On Christmas Eve, 1914, as German, French, and Scottish regiments face each other from their respective trenches, a musical call-and-response turns into an impromptu cease-fire, trading chocolates and champagne, playing soccer, and comparing pictures of their wives. But when Christmas ends, the war returns...Joyeux Noel has been justly accused of sentimentality, but if any subject warrants such an earnest and hopeful treatment, it's the horrors of trench warfare. The largely unknown cast--the more familiar faces include Diane Kruger (Troy), Daniel Bruhl (Good Bye Lenin!), Benno Furmann (The Princess and the Warrior), and Gary Lewis (Billy Elliot)--deliver low-key but effective performances as the movie dwells on the everyday elements of life in the face of war. Based on a true incident (though considerably fictionalized). --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Joyeux Noel (click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

Merry Christmas in No Man's Land: Inspired by an Episode in World War I
On Christmas Eve in 1914, the first year of World War I, there was an unauthorized truce between the German and the British/French armies. Both sides first agreed to bury the dead, and a mass was held during this brief time. Some soldiers even enjoyed playing football in no man's land.

`Joyeux Noël' is inspired by a real-life event that really happened on Christmas Eve at the several front lines during the First World War, and presents the material in a pretty orthodox way, employing the well-handled multi-plot device, in which we will witness the joys and the pains of each character: Guillaume Canet as French lieutenant, Daniel Brühl as German officer, and Gary Lewis as Scottish military chaplain. The cast playing the soldiers are unanimously good, but it is Gary Lewes as tormented military chaplain who is most impressive among them.

'Joyeux Noël' also has a sub-plot about a beautiful soprano singer played by Diane Kruger and tenor singer (and her husband) by Benno Fürmann. I don't know to what extent the film generalized these historical events it shows, but I think their love story looks less effective before the more realistic episodes about the solider in trench. Still these songs are beautiful, and so is Diane Kruger (whose voice is dubbed by soprano singer Natalie Dessay), showing the power of the music which is timeless and universal.

But to some viewers (including me), smaller things would remain more strongly in their mind. A stray cat found in trench is given different names by the German and the French soldiers. There is a good-natured French soldier Ponchel, who sneaks out of the trench every night to meet his family living behind the enemy line. There are moments when the film wears its heart on its sleeve, but it is most touching when it chooses not to be so, showing the details of the life under the extreme circumstances.

In spite of its wave of sentimentality, `Joyeux Noël' does not forget the reality surrounding the soldiers. It surely has some "feel-good" moments that are often seen in the films about Christmas, but it is also about the humans on the battlefield, and you will realize it when you know the fate awaiting them. After all, it was still 1914, and most people must have thought the war would be over soon while we know it finally ended in 1918. The film has a clear, life-affirming message bolstered by moving songs, but the film may look slightly poignant when you imagine how many of them could have survived the war. `Joyeux Noël' is an inspirational French film with several touching songs, a bit of sadness, and hope, too.

Worth Weighing
With our country at war and Christmas coming up, this seemed like a timely movie to share with my family. I'd heard it was based on actual events from World War I, a Christmas Eve on which three sides of the war in the trenches laid down their weapons to share in an evening of peace.

"Joyeux Noel" is not only beautifully directed and photographed, it uses a cast of great actors. The story revolves around a Scottish priest caught up in the drama, two German opera singers caught between love and patriotism, and a French lieutenant missing his pregnant, sick wife. Other characters are included as the movie meanders toward the momentous evening on December 24, 1914. For American audiences raised on constant drama, this might seem to lack fireworks; yet the ideas here are potent, made all the more so by their basis in fact. When one man makes a simple sacrifice for the sake of his superior, he pays a price that underlines the irony of war.

In conclusion, the movie is a moving tribute to men of three nations who saw past hate and political intrigue long enough to share in their humanity. The true enemies reveal themselves as those who stick dogmatically to their own agendas. This is a message worth weighing--spiritually and politically--in light of our current Christmas situation.

Europe's Christian and Musical Roots, then and now
Watching this delightful, deep and orginal movie I suddenly realized why John Paul II was so disappointed when the European Constitution failed to mention Christianity as one of the founding pillars of Europe.

Based on a true episode that took place on Christmas Eve of 1914 (and probably was repeated in other similar occasions) along the Western Front in France, Christian Carion builds up a Christmas tale that signals out the common ideals and beliefs of British (Scots), French and German soldiers.

In the hell of opposing trenches a Christmas chant awakens longing, sadness and expecially friendship among allied Scots and French and their German enemies. Due to the great chivalitry of the troup comanders, that each in his own way represents the best of their cultures, a friendly truce takes place and continues during the following days, until the leading authorities (generals, bishops and fathers) discover what is considered the worse possible form of treason, "fraternization"!

The moving and supremely inspiring moment of the movie is the Mass, officiated by a Scottish clergyman (Gary Lewis), during which the "Ave Maria" is sung, but music intended as an emotional force, like the Christian ideals that then governed society, are present and at work all the time.

All the characters are very well etched and the actors are appropriately chosen. There are many marginal episodes that give a flavour of simple and suffering humanity, that however doesn't loose its dignity or sense of humor.

Revisionism of WWI historiography has been going on now for sometime, and the current opinion of the mass massacre wanted by economical/national powers is now well accepted. This movie does not dwell on such a modern concept, but somehow is born not only from this modern idea of history but also from the construction of a united European Nation.

Carion describes a beautiful and maybe sentimental episode but goes deep into its genesis and meaning, making this way a miliary movie that enriches young and old.