The Movie Dude: ‘Joyeux Noel’ is an overlooked Christmas film

If you’re like me, you probably have a long list of Christmas movies that you have to watch every year. I have about 30 that I watch religiously each year.

Most are classics: “Christmas Vacation,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Home Alone.” They are movies you know by heart, line for line.

But that’s the problem. Christmas is a holiday rooted in tradition and movies are no exception. There are so many traditional Christmas movies out there that we fail to pick up on some of the newer, lesser-known films.

Those are the movies you should seek out. “Joyeux Noel” is not a Christmas movie in the traditional sense. But it showcases the true meaning of Christmas. Surely we can all appreciate that.

The French film, with English subtitles, is based on the true story of the World War I Christmas Truce that took place along the Western Front between Scottish, French and German soldiers.

It’s December 1916 and war is in full swing. Troops from Scotland, Germany and France are all fighting against each other on the same battlefield. Christmas Eve is upon everyone, but they all think it’ll come and go like any other day.

The German military, in hopes to boost morale, sent the troops dozens of tiny Christmas trees to place in the various trenches they’ve dug. But they’re viewed as more of a nuisance than a morale booster.

As all this is going on, one of the German soldier’s wives, Anna (Diane Krueger) is arranging with higher-ups in the government to have her husband, Nikolaus (Benno Furmann), get a leave of absence for Christmas Eve. In his time before the war, Nikolaus was an opera singer and Anna plans on putting a Christmas show together where the both of them can sing in the city.

Upon getting special permission from the Prussian crown prince, Anna gets her way. On Christmas Eve, Nikolaus is allowed to leave for the night and sing. He does so, but feels compelled to leave early to go back to his camp and sing Christmas carols for his men. Anna uses her special permission to join him.

Meanwhile, in the Scottish camp, soldiers begin playing bagpipes and singing songs. The boys in the German trenches hear this and are immediately touched. The men begin to take the miniature Christmas trees they originally weren’t fond of and line them up atop their trenches, in full view of the French and Scottish troops.

Anna and Nikolaus have returned and Nikolaus begins singing “Silent Night.” Once the Scots hear this, they begin playing the same tune with their bagpipes. In a bold move, Nikolaus climbs out of the trench and sings into the night, even going so far as to take one of the Christmas trees and place it in the center of the battlefield.

The French soldiers watch in amazement and soon officers from all three camps convene and agree on holding a cease-fire for Christmas Eve. It’s quite a sight to watch these three groups come together and socialize. Most of them don’t even speak the other side’s language, but still they manage to communicate and trade food, drink and stories. And when you think that this all actually happened almost 100 years ago it hits you even harder.

Even more incredible things take place, but I’ll leave them for you to see. Trust me when I say that they are all equally poignant.

Since this is a foreign film, there are subtitles. There are scenes in English dispersed throughout, though; and like any good subtitled film, after some time goes by you barely realize they’re there.

While “Joyeux Noel” isn’t as holly jolly as “Jingle All the Way” or as funny as “Scrooged,” it’s still a great movie to watch this time of year. While I admit it’s a little slow-going at first, once you get into it you’ll be glad you took the time. It showcases what Christmas is all about — brother- and sisterhood, rejoicing and good cheer.

You might be thinking this would be a hard movie to find, but all major video stores should carry it. I highly recommend you pick it up.

The Movie Dude, Joe Altomere of Fort Myers, grew up in his parents’ video store in Plantersville, Texas. He owns close to 2,000 DVDs and Blu-ray discs and considers that only the start of his collection. E-mail him at jaltomere@yahoo.com

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