Joyeux Noël

[10thzodiac]

Joyeux Noël

--------------Merry Christmas----------------

Christmas Eve 1914 WW I

Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee for Best Foreign Film 2006 (more) (http://www.imdb.com/rg/title-tease/awards/title/tt0424205/awards)

"Tells the true-life story of the spontaneous Christmas Eve truce declared by the Scottish, French and German troops in the trenches of World War I"

Plot Outline: On Christmas Eve during world War I, the Germans, French, and Scottish are trying to make peace, so they bury their dead and play football.

Quotes:
French Student: [First lines] They call out for us. They need our help. We must save them, the people of Alsace-Lorraine.
British Student: We must destroy the Hun. Every single one of them, the women too, so they don't rise back again.
German Student: We have a new enemy. A dangerous enemy that lies across the sea. England.

10thz - I took a chance and rented this movie at blockbuster, the beginning was slow, but as the story progressed the beginning was appropriate and story moving. If this story is true as the director claims, its gotta be one of the best unbelievable stories ever told !

Fortunately the Germans, French and Scott's speak English considerably throughout the movie, when they don't there is English sub-titles. The Germans and French spoke better English than the Scottish http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/06.gif

Pierre-25 (http://www.imdb.com/user/ur0233641/comments) <SMALL>from Montreal, Canada says:</SMALL>
"This very touching story about a true occurrence during the first Christmas of the Great War is very moving. Although the truce was not a generalized event, it did happen in quite a few areas all along the front line. It was the only moment of sanity in an otherwise gruesome experience in futility. Twenty years later, these same countries would be at it again.Karl Marx said that wars are awful events pitting ordinary people (proletariats) one against another for the benefit of the wealthy, the powerful, the aristocrats. This aspect is depicted very well in this movie. I would just like to add a footnote: Alfred Anderson, the last survivor of the Christmas Truce of 1914 died November 21th, 2005 at a nursing home in his native Scotland. He was 109 years old. Lest we forget."

"Two Thumbs Up" - Ebert & Roeper

10thz http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/22.gif

[10thzodiac]

nnm-1 (http://www.imdb.com/user/ur8258506/comments) <SMALL>from Canada says:</SMALL>

This is an incredibly well acted and executed film. It is thought provoking about the obvious issues of war and peace and how the enemy looks like us.

The film is set on Christmas Eve at the beginning of World War I. The film opens with showing the naivet&#233; of youth as the word of war being declared spreads through the town. The local parish priest follows his young parishioners into the battle field. This really is an ensemble piece with many fine and talented actors. It has the added bonus of incredible music.

It also has important themes about the role of religion in the world. How good will try to raise it's head in even the most dire of times and then evil shoots it down.

While I think that this film is a must see, I fear that the negative depiction of organized religion will keep this movie from the praise it so richly deserves.

gerrystakes (http://www.imdb.com/user/ur2699731/comments) <SMALL>from Canada says:</SMALL>

Thanks to a special showing as one of the events to mark the centenary of the Alliance Fran&#231;aise in Canada's capital, I had the privilege of attending a North American premiere of this remarkable film just two days before today Remembrance Day (Veterans Day in the U.S.) Both an appropriate theme and a cinematic Christmas gift come early. I think it may become my top film among several hundred seen this year, just as A Very Long Engagement - also set in the trenches of the First World War - captured my heart and critic's choice last December. Writer-director Christian Carion and all the actors do an amazing job in this multi-country Euro co-production. It should appeal not only to audiences across that continent but to film goers around the world. In addition to presenting a parable from real life relevant for any war-torn age, including our own I might add, Carion works wonders with front-line incidents great and small while drawing compelling individual character portraits from a top notch Scots, French and German cast, each speaking in their native language and accents. That goes for even relatively smaller roles: for example, that of the junior German officer at the front, Lieutenant Horstmayer (ironically a Jew who recalls a Paris honeymoon with his French-speaking wife), as played by the superb young actor Daniel Br&#252;hl (Goodbye Lenin, The Edukators). There is so much more that could be said about this remarkable and timely movie with a timeless message. Even had France not chosen Joyeux N&#246;el as its selection for the 2006 Oscar best foreign-language film category, I would herald it and rejoice in the advent of a new classic that is in another class altogether from the general run of "holiday movies". A story of harsh truths as well as transcendent art, it finds humanity and hope in the midst of battlefield horrors. Seasonal glad tidings indeed!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424205/

[gwladgarwr]

[CENTER]Joyeux Noël
Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee for Best Foreign Film 2006 (more) (http://www.imdb.com/rg/title-tease/awards/title/tt0424205/awards)

"Tells the true-life story of the spontaneous Christmas Eve truce declared by the Scottish, French and German troops in the trenches of World War I"

Plot Outline: On Christmas Eve during world War I, the Germans, French, and Scottish are trying to make peace, so they bury their dead and play football.

Fortunately, the Germans, French, and Scottish speak English considerably throughout the movie; when they don't, there are English subtitles. The Germans and French spoke better English than the Scottish. http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/06.gif

I don't know if that's much of a compliment to the Germans and the French, but as the Scottish Celts would say:

"Better to speak broken Gaelic than polished English."

This Marine of Irish and Welsh stock will heartily agree.

BTW, the movie's pretty good - for a Frahnch film - er - movie.:)

Sgt gwladgarwr

[10thzodiac]

I don't know if that's much of a compliment to the Germans and the French, but as the Scottish Celts would say:

"Better to speak broken Gaelic than polished English."

This Marine of Irish and Welsh stock will heartily agree.

BTW, the movie's pretty good - for a Frahnch film - er - movie.:)

Sgt gwladgarwr

Glad you liked the movie !

http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/18.gif I was sharing a helicopter with an New Zealander in Hilo, HI and told him I recognized a English accent. He told me, "I thought you "Yanks" were the ones with the accent ! "

Another time in Orlando, FL I was talking to some [Irish] Ladies and asked them if they were from England http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/18.gif

We had a [Naval Gunfire] Marine Corporal in my outfit, an English citizen, while we sitting off Saigon August 1964. An Australian Observer attached to on battalion heard his English accent and interrupted us and all p-issed off started calling him a traitor, all I remember was, he had that corporal on the defensive, saying, "I did my "His Majesty's Service !"