PORTALS FOR PEACE: ON-SCREEN
PORTRAYALS OF WAR
Curated by Gerry Sloan
Tuesday evenings, 7:00-9:00 pm, OMNI Center
Beginning Tues December 18
Joyeux Noel
Joyeux Noël (Merry Christmas) is a 2005 epic war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, Scottish, and German soldiers. It was written and directed by Christian Carion.[2] It was screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.[3]
The film, which included 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 French soldiers in their trenches to stand up and applaud