My father and I were watching a show on the History Channel that mentioned the 1914 Christmas Eve truce between French, German, and some Scots soldiers.
Now I find there was a movie made about this and the DVD is for sale. Has anyone seen it? What did you think?
My dad is notoriously hard to get holiday gifts for, if this is a good film I could get it as his Christmas present.
Yes, it is good. A kind of unnecessary secondary plot about an officer and a chanteuse, but very engrossing.
Ironically, I have the movie but haven’t seen it. I was in Tom Thumb (which elsewhere is known as Simon David or Randalls, I guess) and they had it. It says it was nominated for some awards, so I bought it but haven’t had time to watch it yet. Imdb has a high rating for it:
Thanks for the word! If anyone else has seen it, I’d like to hear what they say too.
Sigmagirl, why is it that movies like this always seem to need a love story attached? Well, most of the time anyway.
To bring in the chicks!
I bought it some time back but I just watched it about two weeks ago. I loved it. You do have to watch it, because it’s done in subtitles, and parts of it were a little confusing because sometimes I have trouble with faces, but it’s a good, fairly straightforward story. It made me angry and it made me cry and then when it was over I just sat there for a while. I plan to watch it again fairly soon, and if I can get my family to watch it with me that will be even better.
Saw it and loved it. We bought a copy for my father-in-law who’s both a history buff and an xmas fanatic. He loved it too.
I’ve not seen it. Thought you were referring to A Midnight Clear which has a similar theme but is set in 1944.
FYI, just went to add this to my Netflix queue. If you are in the USA this shows up under the title “Merry Christmas”, not “Joyeux Noël”. Hopefully they haven’t dubbed it.
I saw it and loved it. Yes, I agree that the love story plot line isn’t totally necessary, but it doesn’t get in the way of the rest of the plot. The whole thing is very beautiful while still portraying the brutality of trench warfare, and I love that it’s done in three different languages. Definitely recommended.
I saw it and recommend it also.
I have the dvd and we watch it every holiday season. The acting is not all that great (at times), but it really is a moving film. Definitely get it! The year it was released I believe it was nominated for best foreign film–it may have won–not sure.
I got the movie from Netflix and had it in my possession for over a month before I finally watched it. It completely blew me away. I can count on one hand the number of films that have moved me to the point of tears in the past 25 years or so. This is one of them.
I was also very impressed. I got it from Netflix and bought it shortly after.
If you’d like to make a matching set, an excellent WWI movie is “A Very Long Engagement.”
OK, so I just finished watching it. It’s a good movie, but I don’t think it’s a great movie. I don’t know about all the historical accuracy but the treatment didn’t give me the oomph I was hoping for. For $10, I don’t feel cheated however.
Interesting exchange about the cat here:
For those who don’t want to read it via the link:
If you’ll recall, the commander made a joke about this. He said that cat was intercepted carrying a message of warm wishes from the enemies, “Good luck, comrades!” or something like that. Some in imdb say the cat was actually executed for treason. I’ll have to check out the DVD extras, which I think may contain confirmation of this.
I’ve seen it. I’ll watch it again this year as well. I remember reading about the WWI Christmas back in high school. The movie was good. Different than the usual Christmas movie. Worth a rent.
I absolutely loved Joyeux Noel…
I was in France for a few months last year on an immersion course, and was only watching movies in French… When I watched the film, I could sort of understand the French voices, managed to figure out the French subtitles when the Germans spoke, but felt like I was cheating when I got to hear actors speaking English… and managed to follow it enough to end up in tears…
I eventually watched it again with English subtitles after I finished my immersion - just to make sure I got it all… and ended up in tears again…
Just reading about it on here makes me want to rent it again.
I saw it and liked it. I wouldn’t call it the most well crafted movie of the decade, but if you’re intriqued by the premise it’s well worth the watch. I can’t speak to the specifics of historical accuracy, but broadly speaking the Christmas truce did happen
The print I saw had the title in both languages, French and then English. I looked to see if it was dubbed but found nothing listed.