West European Studies

A 2005 film circling around the World War I Christmas Truce during 1914, Joyeux Noel is a movie that is depicted though the eyes of German, French, and Scottish Soldiers. Written and directed by Christian Carion, this film was screened out of competition during the Cannes Film Festival in 2005. This film was nominated during the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
The film revolves around six characters a Scottish Lieutenant, Gordon a French Lieutenant, Audebert a Jewish German Lieutenant, Horstmayer a British priest who works as a stretcher-bearer, Palmer German tenor, Nikolaus Sprink and his Danish lover, Anna Sorensen.

The film starts with a flashback of some schoolboys who were taught to recite expressions that give praise to their countries and at the same time produce disgust of their foes. Jonathan and William are two young brothers in Scotland who enlist to fight. They were followed by Palmer, their Roman Catholic priest. The Scots and French took in charge of a joint attack during Christmas Eve on the German trenches in France. Jonathan has to leave his wounded brother, William behind as they retreat. Meanwhile in Germany, Anna gets authorization to perform for the Crown Prince of Prussia.
The Scots then start singing Christmas songs. They used bagpipes as accompaniments. Sprink responds to them by singing to his comrades and exiting the trench singing Adeste Fideles. The French, German and Scottish officers met and they all agreed on a truce. Many soldiers met and greeted one another Merry Christmas. There have been exchanges of chocolates, champagnes and photographs. Horstmayer gives Audebert the wallet he lost containing his wifes photograph. A mass was celebrated by the Scots and Palmer.

On the day of Christmas, the officers were having coffee when they decided to bury their dead on that day. They had also played football with one another. The next day, the commanders have decided that it is time for all of them to go on their own ways. During the separation, Audebert tells Horstmayer that his (Horstmayers) French is better than his (Audeberts) German. Horstmayer replies to him implying that hes married to a French woman and not to a German woman.
Nikolaus Sprink gets arrested for disobedience while his lover, Anna is sent back to Berlin. They both remain with the French after they were protected from the artillery attack. They had asked to be taken as prisoners just to be together.

Palmer was sent back to his parish and his regiment broke up. He was scolded by the Bishop who goes on preaching the troops to kill the Germans, whether good or bad, young or old. He preaches them to kill every single German so that it wont have to be repeated again.
In the trenches, a Major commands the Scots to gun down a German soldier who defies going over the no-mans land. The Scots dont except for the revengeful Jonathan who was able to kill him. The German soldier is Ponchel who only disguised being German. He reveals that a German helped him see his mother and have coffee as they had always had before the War.

The French Lieutenant was scolded by his General who is also his father. He was sent to Verdun as a punishment. The Lieutenant rushes out and tells his father that he does not understand what men go through on the border lines. As the General was about to leave, his son tells him about Henri, the dead German soldiers son and the General advises that they must both try and survive the war.
The Crown Prince informs the German that they are to be brought to the Eastern Front without having the chance to go on leave to be able to see their families while they pass Germany. The Crown Prince then takes a harmonica and stomped on it repeatedly. As the train leaves, they start to sing a Scottish carol they have learned during the events. That carol would eventually become the tune for LHymne des Fraterniss Im Dreaming Of Home. The word Tannenberg is painted on the side of the cars. They saw this word as their train pulls away. This place was where the Germans achieved victory over the Russians.