Saturday, December 17, 2011

My Favorite Christmas Movies: "Joyeux Noel"

Zach's Favorite 10 Christmas Movies:
Movie #3

Joyeux Noel
Directed by: Christian Carlon
Starring: Diane Kruger, Guillaume Canet, Daniel Bruhl, Gary Lewis
Rated: PG-13 on appeal for some war violence and a brief scene of sexuality/nudity
When it comes to celebrating the humanity and peace that the Christmas season can bring, nothing quite depicts it as well as the foreign film Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas), an Oscar-nominated film that brilliantly depicts how a group of Germans, Frenchmen, and Scotsmen laid down their arms to celebrate Christmas together in the midst of World War I. Starring some terrific foreign actors and actresses, such as French star Guillaume Canet (Last Night), and German performers Diane Kruger (National Treasure films) and Daniel Bruhl (Inglourious Basterds), Joyeux Noel successfully avoids the rights and wrongs of war and simply embraces the universal humanity of it’s participants. Themes of forgiveness, selflessness, and the brotherhood of man are always characteristic of Christmas movies, but this film seems to capture it in ways that we, who have never sat in the hopeless trenches of France, may never fully understand. While never specifically addressing that we are made in God’s image, the film certainly depicts the wonder and preciousness of humanity and how that should never be lost, even in the midst of war.


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