Joyeux
Noël
Posted to www.marxmail.org on February 10, 2006
Scheduled for theatrical release later this year, "Joyeux Noël" is a reenactment of an actual historical
event that took place on Christmas Eve in 1914. In the north of France,
Scottish and French troops were in one trench and the enemy German troops were
arrayed against them not more than 50 yards away--as was often the case in the
Great War. That night, as they heard each other singing Christmas carols in
each others' language, they were moved to stop fighting for a day and fraternize
with each other.
The film opens in three classrooms as Scottish, French and
German schoolboys tell their classmates how either the enemy must be wiped off
the face of the earth. Moving ahead ten years, we see young men hurrying off to
war, in some cases as if they were going to a soccer match.
One of these men is Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Fürmann),
an opera singer whose solo is interrupted by an announcement that war has begun
from a German officer who has mounted the stage. In a fictionalized back-story,
Sprink has to leave Anna Sörenson
(Diane Kruger), his singing partner and lover, after being drafted. She joins
him at the front on Christmas Eve after the top brass decides that it would be
good for German morale to hear them sing. The Kaiser has also decided that
morale would be bolstered by the presence of Christmas trees in the trenches,
so a virtual forest of pine trees with matching decorations is sent out to the
beleaguered troops as well. This detail, as well as many in this outstanding film,
is borne out by the historical record.
On that fateful night Scottish bagpipers take the first step
in a feeling out process that would eventually lead to the men greeting each
other as brothers. After hearing them perform a plaintive Christmas tune, the
Germans spontaneously applaud. Inspired by the bagpipes, Sprink
and Sörenson reply with a duet which the allied
troops respond to rapturously from within the innards of the trench. At this
point, Sprink takes what appears to be a
death-defying initiative. Stepping up from his trench with a lighted Christmas
tree in his hands, he advances toward the enemy trenches singing "Stille Nacht" (Silent
Night). Although I am generally a rather impassive sort, tears came to my eyes
at this point.
Over the next 24 hours, war comes to an end in the
snow-covered, desolate no-man's land they are fighting to win control over.
They show each other photos of wives and lovers, play soccer, drink each
other's liquor and play cards.
Eventually reality sinks in and they are forced to return to
killing each other. When the British high command learns of the key role of the
Scottish chaplain in bringing about a truce, they ship him off to another unit.
To put the troops back on the right track, a Bishop comes in and delivers a
sermon on the need to exterminate the enemy. Although this is a minor role,
veteran actor Ian Richardson turns in a memorable performance as the
bloodthirsty priest. If a film audience had any doubt about the relevance of
this film to the current political situation, it is put to rest by his sermon,
which includes a reminder that the British are not like their barbaric enemies
who attack civilians. It is like listening to Pat Robertson with an Oxonian accent.
Director Christian Carion, who
grew up in the region of France where the 1914 Christmas truce took place, was
inspired to make this film after discovering "Battles of Flanders and
Artois 1914-1918" by Yves Buffetaut, which
contained a passage titled "The Incredible Winter of 1914." Buffetaut recounted the fraternizing among the troops, a
German tenor being applauded by his enemies, a soccer match, the exchange of
photos, etc.
There was one historical detail that he was forced to leave
out, even though it was true. He feared that the credulity of audiences would
be strained upon discovering the trial for spying and execution of a tom cat
shared by the enemy camps! (In the film, he was Nestor to the Scottish and Fritzi to the Germans. Carion
decided to cut the trial scene from the film when extras working on the film
thought it went overboard.) Of course, if one ever decided to make a film about
the war in
Although the film functions more as a pageant than as
straightforward drama, it is entirely captivating. While watching it, I was
reminded of another WWI antiwar classic: "King of Hearts". In that
film, a British foot soldier turns his back on the fighting by disguising
himself as a mental patient. That film in turn made me think about "
===
The Guardian (
Last survivor
In 1914 Alfred Anderson witnessed one of the first world war's most remarkable events: Christmas Day
truce veteran dies, aged 109
By Gerard Seenan
The last soldier to have served during the first world war's Christmas truce in 1914 died peacefully in
his sleep yesterday aged 109.
Alfred Anderson, who was also the oldest man in
The former soldier was 18 when he was sent to the western
front. Although he was stationed back from the front lines when the truce broke
out, he remembered the silence of temporary peace and shouting out "Merry
Christmas" when he and his friends first heard it.
Announcing his death yesterday, the Rev Neil Gardner,
minister at his church in Alyth, Perthshire,
said: "He was
Shortly after dawn on Christmas Day 1914, the sound of
Silent Night, or Stille Nacht,
was heard from behind German lines. As the carol ended, a German soldier
appeared in no-man's land. "Merry Christmas. We
not shoot. You not shoot," he is reported to have said. It was the
beginning of an unauthorised truce that would
gradually spread across the 500-mile front, where more than a million men were
stationed. Soldiers from both sides shook hands, sang carols and played
football. In some parts the ceasefire lasted for weeks, but Mr
Anderson heard gunfire by afternoon.
Lieutenant Colonel Roddy Riddell,
regimental secretary of the Black Watch, said the death of Mr
Anderson, whose funeral is expected to take place on Friday, was the "end
of an epoch". In 1998, Mr Anderson was awarded
Jack McConnell,