21 Dec Joyeux Noël
Joyeux Noel, WWI Movie about the 1914 Christmas Truce
(2005) On December 24, 1914, British soldiers faced the Germans across a “no-man’s land” stretch on the Western Front. Both sides were holed up in freezing boggy trenches, and it was Christmas Eve.
Last night on The Military History Channel I watched an excellent one hour documentary on “The Christmas Truce,” narrated by Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd. You just know that the young men on both sides were all homesick and scared. What happened is that in some areas, these boys were able to celebrate Christmas together. Songs, soccer, gifts, handshakes, beer, stories shared.
Joyeux Noël is the movie made in 2006 about this event. This is the first time I have written about a movie I haven’t seen yet … I am on the lookout for it!
If you search on YouTube for Christmas Truce 1941 you can find lots of videos about this amazing event. This is my favorite, the reading of a “letter” authored by storyteller Aaron Shepard.
In 2004, the last survivor of the “Christmas Truce” gave an interview to The Observer. He still shed tears when he talked about his Great War.
Some of the high command on both sides were unhappy with the truce and reminded their troops that fraternizing with the enemy was high treason.
I don’t think that message went very far. After all, it was Christmas.
UPDATE August 1, 2012
I have now watched the movie Joyeux Noël based on the true stories of the Christmas truce. It was a little disjointed but once I figured out who was French, who was Scot, and who was German it all made sense. There was an implausible but attractive subplot of a beautiful Danish soprano and a dashing German tenor who sing magnificently together and come into the trenches to sing for the troops. (Well, neither actor really sings but I didn’t realize that at first.) Overall, the music was wonderful and helped give the story its Christmas meaning.
Joyeux Noel at amazon.com
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