While doing some holiday movie research for an article and slideshow I was putting together for work awhile back I came to the realization that Charles Dickens' classic short story, A Christmas Carol has been adapted at least 50 times since the invention of moving pictures. I think anyone would be hard-pressed to find another story that has been adapted more often into film and television specials than that!
I know plenty of people who love a wide range of adaptations, most notably A Muppet Christmas Carol and Bill Murray's Scrooged. While both films are fun holiday flicks in their own right, I prefer my Scrooge straight up mean and nasty -- all the better to make his conversion at the end have more of a meaningful impact.
Which brings me to the 1951 Brian Desmond Hurst adaptation starring Alastair Sim in the title role. Arguably the finest version of how the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge re-discovered his Christmas spirit and restored his reputation, a lot of credit is due to the performance of Sim. The man was born to play Scrooge -- the craggy-faced Scottish native perfectly captures all of the characters' multitude of emotions, from hardened and world weary to childlike wonder. Regardless of how many times I've seen this film, his jubilant Christmas morning jig towards the end always makes me smile.
When I was about eight years old, my mom introduced this classic adaptation to my sister and I. It was in black and white. It made cracking and popping sounds because of a poor VHS transfer. It had long lines down the screen from where the original film was scratched. And, from that young age of eight, I still managed to become hooked, despite everything going against it. It soon became a Christmas Eve tradition -- the night before Christmas, we'd sit around the TV and watch Scrooge transform into a caring and compassionate human being who learned "how to keep Christmas well."
Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge
I can't think of another version (and I've seen many) that so accurately captures the true holiday spirit of Dickens' story. It's dark, it's sad, it's charming and it's ultimately what Christmas is all about -- putting differences aside and spending time with loved ones.
There's something to be said for a story that has endured for so many generations -- it's clear that Dickens hit a nerve when he first published his novella. I even wrote about the phenomenon for last years holiday issue of History Magazine ("How Charles Dickens Saved Christmas"). Every great piece of fiction deserves a worthy film adaptation should people decide to translate it onto the silver screen and the 1951 version of A Christmas Carol is just that.
So, later on tonight, once my family and I have returned from our Christmas Eve dinner with one side of our extended family, we'll curl up on the couch and watch A Christmas Carol once again. Twenty years after watching it for the first time, it's still my favourite way to unwind on Christmas Eve before the hustle and bustle of the big day.
JOYEUX NOEL (2005) Written and Directed By: Christian Carion
Starring: Guillaume Canet, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Benno Furmann and Gary Lewis
I purchased this film on a whim last year and only just got around to watching it. Originally, I planned to watch it during its limited theatrical release but it passed me by.
For those of you who know me, you are aware that I'm an absolute sap for Christmas and the winter holidays, in general. I literally melt into a puddle of sentimental goop around Christmas. I figured this film, combined with the fact that it's based on an actual historical event, seemed tailor-made for my tastes.
The film chronicles the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ceasefire between the Germans, French and Scottish on the Western Front during the early days of the First World War in 1914, when soldiers still thought they would be home by the following year at the latest. It came to be known as The Christmas Truce and is still celebrated today as an example of human decency and kindness, in the face of violence and death. These three groups of men, from three different countries and speaking three different languages, overcame all barriers and spent the holidays together in their trenches, sharing meals and stories about their homes and families. They become fast friends, causing a scandal within their higher ranks who were far away from the fighting. When word gets out that the three nations have stopped shooting at one another, against orders, all the men involved are punished by their respective nations.
Carion and his casting directors made some wonderful choices in the acting department. There's nothing better, when watching a film, than coming across an actor you've never seen before and are pleasantly surprised by how great they are. I'd never seen Guillaume Canet in anything before but this wonderful French actor is pretty much the centrepiece of the film as French commander, Audebert (pictured above). He's a young man in charge of a vast troop and his kindness towards his men, his nervousness in agreeing to the truce and his blossoming friendship with the timid and awkward Ponchel (Dany Boon) holds the film together. You almost wish the cast wasn't such a huge ensemble because his character deserves his own film.
The rest of the cast is just as stellar. As the lone female in the film, Diane Kruger (who I always find to be a much stronger actress when speaking in her native German), plays Dutch opera singer, Anna Sorensen, who is brought to the troops on Christmas Eve to sing to them with her boyfriend, German soprano Nikolaus Sprink (played by Benno Furmann, also great in his role). Rounding out the cast is Gary Lewis as Scottish piper, Palmer (most will recognize him as the father from Billy Elliot), who is such an excellent actor and is really fantastic in the scene where he plays the bagpipes to accompany the German soprano, Sprink. Without any dialogue, he conveys all the emotions of a man exhausted with war and seeking a moment of peace and relief. Daniel Bruhl (another great actor that most will recognize from Inglourious Basterds but was also excellent in the German films Love in Thoughts, Goodbye Lenin! and The Edukators) plays German commander, Horstmayer, a Jewish man who admits Christmas means next to nothing to him but, after some initial reluctance, readily embraces the truce.
This film is by no means perfect. The pacing is a little off. For a war film with a focus on peace, love and understanding between three nations at war, its slow to start. I suspect it was a struggle for the writers and director to balance such a large cast and the struggle to find a main voice. Most films benefit from the focus on one or two main protagonists, however, that would have been impossible to do in a film/historical event that has so many different sides. Initially, the main character appears to be Anna, which is odd considering the film is based on an actual historical truce. The fact that it doesn't begin with an emphasis on that point gets the film off on the wrong foot. However, after the "Silent Night" scene that bonds all three troops, the film evens out and hits its stride, focusing on the men and their shared excitement of being able to put down there guns and be young men again, if only for a little while. I still wish more emphasis had been placed on the men and less time spent with the opera singers. However, the powerful message that war is senseless and that even our enemies are just like us, is still relevant to this day. Moments like the real Christmas Truce deserve to be captured on film, if only to remind us of that fact.
FINAL GRADE: B+
On a final note, here's the scene where German soprano, Sprink, sings "Silent Night" when he is joined by Scottish bagpiper, Palmer.
