Joyeux Noel (2005) on Netflix
PG-1320051h 56mDramaHistoryMusic
December 1914: French, Scottish and German soldiers face each other across no man's land. The tenor Nikolaus Sprink and soprano Anna Sørensen travel to the front, where carols begin a truce.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.6/1034,518 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes74%
Trailer
Plot summary
In the first winter of the war, French, Scottish and German troops hold opposing trenches on the Western Front. In Scotland, the priest Father Palmer follows two brothers into the army as a chaplain. In Germany, the tenor Nikolaus Sprink is called up mid-performance, and the French lieutenant Audebert leaves behind a pregnant wife in the occupied zone. An Allied assault on the German lines fails with heavy losses. Sprink's wife, the soprano Anna Sørensen, obtains permission to sing for Crown Prince Wilhelm; the pair then go to the front, where he sings for his comrades. Father Palmer's bagpipes answer from the Scottish trench, and Sprink walks into no man's land carrying a small Christmas tree. Lieutenants Audebert, Horstmayer and Gordon meet there and agree on a ceasefire for the evening.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Joyeux Noel (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In reality the trench-crossing cat was accused of spying, arrested by the French Army and shot by a firing squad as a traitor would have been; the film's extras refused to participate in the scene, so it was amended to show the cat imprisoned.
- The film is a fictionalised account of a real event: in December 1914 Crown Prince Wilhelm sent the lead singer of the Berlin Imperial Opera, the tenor Walter Kirchhoff, to the front line, where his singing to the 120th and 124th Württemberg regiments made Scottish soldiers stand up and applaud.
- Director Christian Carion had never heard of the real Christmas truce while growing up in France, because the French Army and authorities suppressed the incidents, viewing them as an act of disobedience.
- The carol "L'Hymne des Fraternisés" / "I'm Dreaming of Home" is in fact a modern composition by Lori Barth and Philippe Rombi, not a traditional First World War song.
