JOYEUX NOEL

It's Christmas Eve 1914. For weeks the French and Scots have been fighting in mud-filled trenches against the Germans. They have watched in horror as friends and family have been cut to pieces by machine gun fire. In a moment of calm the sound of bagpipes floats across the battlefield. Soon, a German soldier, formerly a famed opera tenor, boldly steps out of his trench and joins in. One by one soldiers from all three armies drop their rifles, step onto no man’s land and shake hands with the enemy. In this narrow stretch of hell, the men’s commanders declare a holiday cease-fire, throwing a wrench into the great gears of the war machine.

Sounds like the plot to a Hollywood movie doesn’t it? It also happens to be true. Based on his extensive research of British, French and German archives, filmmaker Christian Carion has brought to the screen this stranger-than-fiction footnote in WWI history.

A nominee for the 2005 Foreign Film Oscar, Joyeux Noel is a handsomely mounted, beautifully acted film that is unapologetic in its humanism and more than a little corny. Critics may be divided over its Capra-esque exuberance, but audiences will find this true-life tale of enemies who put aside their political and national loyalties for a few fragile moments of camaraderie both moving and uplifting. It’s the type of old-fashioned filmmaking where good intentions (and performances) trump an otherwise prosaic narrative and style. It’s baffling that Sony Pictures Classics chose not to release Joyeux Noel in December. Its French roots aside, Carion’s ode to fraternal sentimentality could have easily found favor with our red state brethren.

The film opens by dutifully introducing its protagonists: French soldier Audebett (Guillaume Canet), Scottish priest Palmer (Gary Lewis), and Berlin opera singer, Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Furmann), are called into service by their countries, leaving behind those who love them. Promised a short war, they soon find themselves trapped on the front line during a particularly nasty winter, yards separating them from the enemy.

In recognition of the holiday, the Scots are provided with a case of whiskey, the French are ignored and the Kaiser issues Christmas trees for the troops – one every 100 feet.

Sprink's lover, Anna (model-turned actress Diane Kruger), desperate to be reunited with her paramour, arranges for him to perform for top military brass at a nearby chateau. After the concert Sprink insists that they return to the trenches to sing for his comrades. When he hears the keen of nearby bagpipes, he makes the gesture that leads to the remarkable armistice. Exchanging photos, sharing drinks and playing soccer, the men learn the true difference between war and its warriors. Of course, now that they have embraced one another as friends the demands of combat become harder to obey.

It’s pretty evident Carion is more interested in plucking at your heart strings than inspiring critical thoughts about the folly of war. He presents the conflict as apolitical, never once bringing up the reasons World War I was fought. With the exception of an angry young Scottish soldier who lost his brother, the men are presented as loyal, earnest and sincere. It’s a naïve conceit and doesn’t allow the audience to draw its own conclusions about the event.

Still, as obvious and contrived as the film is, there are moments of affecting insight and honesty. A midnight mass lead by Palmer gains heartbreaking poignancy as he delivers his prayers in Latin, knowing full well that the frostbitten soldiers don’t understand the language but recognize all too well its message: goodwill doesn’t require sanction or orchestration, only a desire for peace.

Though Carion’s efforts lack depth and finesse, there’s no denying the power of his story. Joyeux Noel shows us how enemies can join together as human beings to survive the worse actions of humanity. It’s easy to wish that someone with greater artistic ambitions tackled this remarkable event but given how long it’s been neglected by cinema, we should be thankful for this flawed film’s aching sincerity.

FOOTNOTE: it is very telling to see how the different nations reacted in the aftermath of this incredible event. The English press plastered news of the soldier's fraternization across the front pages. Germany recorded then hid all documentation of the event and the French destroyed the evidence and branded the men traitors… going so far as to execute a stray cat that roamed from trench to trench for being a spy.