The theme for MovieRob‘s Genre Grandeur series of December 2014 was holiday films, which is a perfect choice for one of the most holiday-dense months of the year. So many excellent reviews were featured during December’s Genre Grandeur. I chose to write about Joyeux Noel (2005, dir. Christian Carion), a film about war, peace, and Christmas. Although Christmas is over and we’re now into the new year, this is still a film well worth watching, particularly if you’re interested in war history.

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Part Christmas film, part war film, and part anti-war film, Joyeux Noel (2005, dir. Christian Carion) is a retelling of the famous Christmas Truce of World War One. During the Christmas Truce in this film, the Scottish, French and German troops who were fighting in the trenches on the Western Front called a ceasefire that lasted from Christmas Eve until the morning of Boxing Day. During…