Happy Christmas [Joyeux Noël] *** (2005, Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Diane Kruger, Gary Lewis, Alex Ferns, Daniel Brühl) – Classic Movie Review 11,764

‘Without an enemy there can be no war.’

Happy Christmas [Joyeux Noël] (2005) is the somewhat fictionalised, and very sentimental version of the story of the First World War Christmas ceasefire in the trenches, where the Germans, French and Scots met up and fraternised for an unofficial get-together. It is set on Christmas Eve 1914 on a World War One battlefield.

It is directed and written by Christian Carion, who said: ‘I wanted the audiences to sympathize equally with the Germans, the French and the Scots. Good guys, bad guys – no, not at all. The people on the frontline can understand each other because they are living the same life and suffering the same way. That’s why is understandable that they would make a Christmas truce.’

Such a story has to have touching moments, and it does, but dubbed singing German actors Benno Fürmann and Diane Kruger are a bit of a pain, and so after a while is Gary Lewis’s Scots minister.

Nevertheless, it is quite well done, though.

Benno Fürmann (singing voice: Rolando Villazón) stars as German tenor Private Nikolaus Sprink, whose real name was Walter Kirchhoff, born in Berlín in 1879 and died in Wiesbaden in 1951. Diane Kruger (singing voice: Natalie Dessay) plays Sprink’s mezzo-soprano Danish fiancée.

The story centres round six characters: Lieutenant Gordon (Alex Ferns) of the Royal Scots Fusiliers); French Lieutenant Audebert (Guillaume Canet ) of the 26th Infantry, the reluctant son of a general; Jewish German Lieutenant Horstmayer (Daniel Brühl) of the 93rd Infantry; Scottish chaplain and stretcher-bearer Father Palmer (Gary Lewis); and two famous opera stars, German tenor Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Fürmann) and his mezzo-soprano Danish fiancée Anna Sørensen (Diane Kruger).

In December 1914, German Crown Prince Wilhelm sent the lead singer of the Berlin Imperial Opera company on a solo visit to the front line. Singing by the tenor, Walter Kirchhoff, to the 120th and 124th Württemberg regiments led French soldiers in their trenches to stand up and applaud.

The cast are Benno Fürmann as Private Nikolaus Sprink, Guillaume Canet as Lieutenant Camille René Audeber, Diane Kruger as Anna Sørensen, Gary Lewis as Father Palmer, Alex Ferns as Lieutenant Gordon, Dany Boon as Private Ponchel, Daniel Brühl as Leutnant (Lieutenant) Horstmayer (German 93rd Infantry Regiment), Christian Carion as British Medical Orderly, Christopher Fulford as Royal Scots Fusiliers Major, Mathias Herrmann as German Officer at Headquarters, Neil McNulty as Scottish Soldier, Lucas Belvaux as Gueusselin, Steven Robertson as Jonathan, Suzanne Flon as The Chatelaine, Bernard Le Coq as Général, and Ian Richardson as the Bishop.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,764

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