A heartfelt story of men who managed to find camaraderie and humanity in the face of the torrent of bellicose rhetoric coming from their respective authorities...
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12/11/08
Joyeux Noël (2006)
76 %
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 88
Fresh: 67
Rotten:21
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Consensus: The poignant humanity on display in Joyeux Noel makes its sentimentality forgivable.
Theatrical Release:Mar 3, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $913,127
Synopsis: Set in 1914 amid the muddy trenches and flying shrapnel of World War I, JOYEUX NOEL is a touching tale of an unlikely, if fleeting, reconciliation amid battle. French director Christian Carion... [More]
Starring: Diane Kruger, Benno Furmann, Guillaume Canet, Lucas Belvaux
Director: Christian Carion
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Reviews for Joyeux Noël
Nominated for the 2005 Best Foreign Film Academy Award, "Noel" is the kind of sentimental tripe the Academy loves to honor in order to justify their own sentimental tripe.
08/07/08
Some might castigate its unabashed sentimentality, but I found myself moved, especially when I recalled that this was supposedly the war to end all wars.
11/27/07
Top CriticA surprisingly homogenous, organic and satisfying broad-canvas burst of ambitious, engaging cinema.
03/01/07
Saber que o espetacular incidente relatado pelo longa realmente aconteceu é algo que, confesso, me reconforta imensamente.
11/30/06
This true story seems like it can only be explained as 'a God thing,' and indeed, how else could something so extraordinary take place without divine intervention?
09/25/06
It’s a respectful, sobering tribute to the flickering of humanitarian spirit amid the darkest days of conflict and, as such, surely a Christmas film for the ages.
08/03/06
[Carion] settles for making a tear-jerker, when it could have been -- and deserves to be -- so much more.
07/01/06
Well-photographed and acted, Joyeux Noël suffers most from the inevitable comparison with its betters, such films as Paths of Glory or All Quiet on the Western Front.
06/22/06
Top CriticOffers enough of a sense of the strange stillness and fleeting promise that hovered over the early days of a bitter, cancerous war for just one evening to move even the most sentiment-hardened viewer.
06/08/06
The story speaks to universal human emotions that transcend country and culture.
05/19/06
...a dull and pretty play, oiled by syrup and lighted by golden candles.
05/19/06
Carion's faith in his fellow man -- and you sense that wherever they are in the world, they're his fellow man -- is a touching dose of Christmas cheer that's unexpectedly welcome in mid-May.
05/12/06
[D]ramatizes this bizarre moment in time with a straightforward aplomb that is devastating, that makes you wish you could laugh at the insanity and pointlessness of it but refuses all emotional response except overwhelming rage and grief.
05/04/06
Writer-director Christian Carion doesn't achieve the depth of poignancy he may have aspired to, but his elegantly simple storytelling does illustrate the futility of the war that was supposed to end all wars.
04/29/06
It's a marvelously entertaining history lesson -- glossy, emotional and touching.
04/21/06
One of the few movies where its sentimentality actually works in its favor.
04/21/06
In language and approach, [Carion's] movie tends toward maudlin self-importance; technically, it's at best inconsistent.
04/20/06
Not a subtle movie. Nevertheless, the message is noble, moving, and worthwhile.
04/14/06
A remarkable episode in the bloody history of what is still referred to -- with increasingly sickening irony -- as 'the war to end all wars.'
04/14/06
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