Thursday, November 16, 2006

Film: Joyeux Noel (Christian Carion, France 2005)

This is an incredibly well-scripted, fascinating and deeply emotional film about the Christmas Day, 1914 truce between the French and Scottish on the one side and the Germans on the other. It is based on historical events, only available due to a few letters that survive to this day.

The plot/script is superb, with each side having characters and developments that all come to fruition at the scene of the truce itself. The causality is brilliant. There is also a clever device of switching between English, French and German with various subtitles depending on the country where you bought the DVD. It helps suture the plot and the audience into the day's events.

There are the two brothers from the Scottish highlands, one played by Stephen Robertson, who leave for the war in a regiment headed by the brilliant Alex Ferns, formerly of EastEnders of all things. Ferns played the bad guy, Trevor, in that awful soap series, yet here plays a tough yet reasonable commander.

There is, on the German side, the lieutenant and the tenor, the latter from Berlin, not really in the army at all, yet sent over on Christmas Eve to cheer them all up. There is even a strange cameo appearance from Ian Richardson, of all people, as a war-mad militaristic Bishop who after the even makes a terrifying speech urging the Allies to kill as many Germans as they can and to give up any fraternisation (again, based on real-life events and a speech in Westminster Abbey at the time).

They fight each other, friends and brothers are killed, but on Christmas Eve (the first of the war) they've all had enough and settle in for the night. The German singer starts singing and then the whole affair starts, carried along by the great motif of music. The Scots start playing their bagpipes, eventually matching the famous German song Silent Night with their own equally enigmatic and talismanic Auld Langsyne. It has to be heard to be appreciated.

On the DVD, the special features section has an interview with the director, Christian Carion, who is himself from Cambrai, one of the most iconic battle scenes of World War I. He explains various parts of the film but I would also recommend the audio commentary (just toggle the Audio button 2 or 3 times on the remote). Carion explains how most of the plot is based on true events, even the arrest of the cat, Felix/Nestor for high treason.

If I ever get a cat I shall name it Felix or Nestor in honour of this great film.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home