Joyeux Noël
Joyeux Noël (English: Merry Christmas) is a 2005 war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, British, and German soldiers. It was written and directed by Christian Carion, and screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
| Merry Christmas | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Christian Carion |
| Written by | Christian Carion |
| Produced by | Christophe Rossignon Benjamin Herrmann |
| Starring | Benno Fürmann Guillaume Canet Daniel Brühl Diane Kruger Gary Lewis Alex Ferns |
| Cinematography | Walther Vanden Ende |
| Edited by | Judith Rivière Kawa Andrea Sedlácková |
| Music by | Philippe Rombi |
| Distributed by | UGC Fox Distribution (France) Senator Film (Germany) Sony Pictures Classics (United Kingdom) Big Bang Media (Belgium) Media Pro Pictures (Romania) |
Release date |
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Running time | 116 minutes |
| Countries | France Germany United Kingdom Belgium Romania Japan |
| Languages | French English German |
| Budget | $22 million |
| Box office | $17.7—23.1 million |
- Joyeux Noël means Merry Christmas in French. For other uses, see Christmas (disambiguation) and Merry Christmas (disambiguation)
The film, which includes one of the last appearances of Ian Richardson before his death, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards. It is a fictionalised account of an actual event that took place in December 1914, when Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, 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 Scottish soldiers in their trenches to stand up and applaud.