Date:21/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/21/stories/2008122150640200.htm

Karnataka

A simple story brilliantly told

A scene from ‘Joyeux Noël’

Joyeux Noël (French and German with English subtitles)

Cast: Guillaume Canet, Daniel Brühl, Benno Fürmann

Director: Christian Carion

“Joyeux Noël” (Merry Christmas) has a simple story that is brilliantly told. Soldiers on the front decide to cease hostilities on Christmas Eve during World War I. The warring Scots, French and Germans are touched by the spirit of Christmas as a talented tenor from the German trench sings a carol. As his voice pierces the silent night, the soldiers from the French and Scottish sides join in.

Hostilities are set aside as midnight mass is said, champagne, chocolates and addresses are shared and the dead are buried. Predictably, the authorities look on the fraternising as treason.

There is love, loss and drama in the trenches. In the Scottish trench, there is a priest and two brothers, one of who is killed. The French lieutenant is desperate for news of his pregnant wife, while the German tenor is ruining his voice smoking cigarettes to forget about the fragility of life, and his lover, the soprano, tries to pull strings to get him free.

The movie is set in 1914, the beginning of World War I.

MINI ANTHIKAD-CHHIBBER