MERRY CHRISTMAS d: Christian Carion


Joyeux Noël / Merry Christmas (2005)

Direction and screenplay: Christian Carion. Cast: Guillaume Canet, Gary Lewis, Daniel Brühl, Benno Fürmann, Diane Kruger, Dany Boon

 

Guillaume Canet, Daniel Bruhl, Gary Lewis in Merry Christmas

 

SUPPOSE THEY GAVE A WAR AND NOBODY FOUGHT

Christian Carion’s Joyeux Noël / Merry Christmas, based on a true World War I ceasefire that took place around Christmastime 1914, is a tad more conventional and old-fashioned than it should have been — the film even offers the combat unit idiot of countless other movies as (unfunny) comic relief. Compounding matters, many of the performances are disappointingly below par. Even so, Joyeux Noël remains a powerful — and ever timely — anti-war statement that celebrates the human capacity for empathy and forgiveness while attacking the human propensity to call for (and to commit) the wholesale slaughter of other human beings in the name of god, country, flag, and/or freedom.

Reviewed at the AFI FEST 2005


Next: Mohamed Malas’ PASSION Controversy « « | Previous: » » NEXT DOOR d: Pål Sletaune

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Comments

2 Responses to “MERRY CHRISTMAS d: Christian Carion”

  1. anneke on March 9th, 2008

    This was a great film. It should have won the Oscar.

  2. Sherri on November 28th, 2009

    This is an excellent film, and I think everyone should see it once, I completely agree with the last commenter – it should have won an Oscar!

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