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A film about a remarkable event in human history.

Joyeux Noel
 

There are some stories set at Christmas so incredible you can’t believe they’re not made up. The Christmas armistice of 1914 is one of them. In the midst of the bloodiness of trench warfare, the English and German troops spontaneously decided to stop fighting, laid down their arms and freely fraternized with the enemy.

What’s amazing is it took 90 years for anyone to make a film about it.

Frustratingly, Joyeux Noel takes liberties with its subject mater, presumably to satisfy the various international co-producers. They throw in a French troop which weren’t there in 1914 (though French troops did have a separate Christmas armistice with the Germans in 1915). They contrive to put a woman in the trenches and further contrive for her and her soldier boyfriend to be acclaimed opera singers. They also fudge other details: the Scottish chaplain is either Catholic or Anglican depending on the needs of a particular scene.

And yet, while it sacrifices historical accuracy for commercial needs, Joyeux Noel is brilliant at capturing the emotional truth of the circumstances. Wathcing the situation grow from a fluke—Scottish and German troops begin to accompany each other on Christmas Carols over the line—to an uneasy talk between commanding officers to this incredible moment when all sides start coming atop no man’s land to talk with enemy combatants.

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Director Christian Carion captures beautifully the awkward ambiguousness of people who were shooting each other hours before now showing their enemies pictures of their wives and family. None of what’s at the core of the film feels contrived.

The situation goes from a one-night deal then gets extended the next day to allow for the burial of the dead. This sequence is deeply moving as everyone works together to bury their comrades.

It grows organically into full-out fraternization: football games between combatants; sitting through shelling in enemy trenches; everything begins to blur. And, as it does, you can see where it will all lead, as truce leads to ambivalance towards a war that has become increasingly mechanized, anonymous and futile.

Soon enough the command structures swoop in and punish the perpetrators. One of the most heartbreaking scenes is watching the Scottish chaplain, having held a Christmas Eve mass for the soldiers on all three sides in no man’s land, now become chastised by his Bishop. “I believe I gave the most important mass of my life.” He protests. The Bishop accuses him of sedition.

Joyeux Noel is not a perfect film, but at its best it documents a moment in history where men did something extraordinary: they regarded their enemies as fellow men.

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