Merry Christmas is a French War movie written and directed by Christian Carion in 2005. It deal with the Christmas Truce of the First World War in December 1914 between the French, Scottish and German soldiers. Christian Carion directed other movies such as Monsieur Député in 1999,and L'Affaire Fareweel in 2009.
This movie was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards. It was screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
The actors contributed to the success of the movie : Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Diane Kruger, Gary Lewis, Alex Ferns, Danny Boon.
But if someone thinks it's thanks to them, I find the characters flat, There is a lack of complexity in them even if throughout the story the History is showing. Despite that I was overwhelmed by this movie.
The main plot of the movie : « One Chirstmas Day of the officers have coffee together and decide to « bury their dead on the day Christ was born ». Later, the soldiers play a football match. » The scene when soldiers are able to fraternize shows the fact that soldiers are not just « machine to kill ». This scene permits to highlight the humanity of soldiers because most of the time in war movies we forget the fact that they have a heart. During this Truce, the soldiers are on an equal footing whatever their nationality, they all have, during the Christmas, memories about their family, and faith.
Christian Carion encountered difficulties to find a ground of some hectares because of the French Army. He found a French military training ground but the commandant of the base said 'no' ! Moreover he participate in the hostility of militarist because he refused to show archives of the army which prove the existence of brotherhood during the war. But he finally found a ground in Romania. Despite that, Christian Carion is « armed » as far as the scenario is colored, fed by small real facts (the cat which passed from one camp to the other...) The acting is perfectly managed with sometimes elegance...
Merry Christmas sound like a « anti-war » movie if I could say so, even if it's a war film because the film celebrate Man capacity for empathy and forgiveness.
Adeline
I found spectacular the fact that was able to mix fraternization and humanity with the atrocity because we never lose the horror of war even if it's Christmas Truce. Despite the war, the language, despite cultures, men under their statute of soldiers will meet and appraise during some hours because the military authorities will stop.
It's an irreproachable realism, this movie gives us a parenthesis of love and peace which raises several questions to the spectator, like the legitimacy of war. Merry Christmas, a lesson of humanity.
This movie was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards. It was screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
The actors contributed to the success of the movie : Benno Fürmann, Guillaume Canet, Diane Kruger, Gary Lewis, Alex Ferns, Danny Boon.
But if someone thinks it's thanks to them, I find the characters flat, There is a lack of complexity in them even if throughout the story the History is showing. Despite that I was overwhelmed by this movie.
The main plot of the movie : « One Chirstmas Day of the officers have coffee together and decide to « bury their dead on the day Christ was born ». Later, the soldiers play a football match. » The scene when soldiers are able to fraternize shows the fact that soldiers are not just « machine to kill ». This scene permits to highlight the humanity of soldiers because most of the time in war movies we forget the fact that they have a heart. During this Truce, the soldiers are on an equal footing whatever their nationality, they all have, during the Christmas, memories about their family, and faith.
Christian Carion encountered difficulties to find a ground of some hectares because of the French Army. He found a French military training ground but the commandant of the base said 'no' ! Moreover he participate in the hostility of militarist because he refused to show archives of the army which prove the existence of brotherhood during the war. But he finally found a ground in Romania. Despite that, Christian Carion is « armed » as far as the scenario is colored, fed by small real facts (the cat which passed from one camp to the other...) The acting is perfectly managed with sometimes elegance...
Merry Christmas sound like a « anti-war » movie if I could say so, even if it's a war film because the film celebrate Man capacity for empathy and forgiveness.
Adeline
I found spectacular the fact that was able to mix fraternization and humanity with the atrocity because we never lose the horror of war even if it's Christmas Truce. Despite the war, the language, despite cultures, men under their statute of soldiers will meet and appraise during some hours because the military authorities will stop.
It's an irreproachable realism, this movie gives us a parenthesis of love and peace which raises several questions to the spectator, like the legitimacy of war. Merry Christmas, a lesson of humanity.