Christmas movie night
Check out our recommendations for foreign Christmas movies to watch this year.
Joyeux Noël
This powerful film recreates the true story of French, German and British troops locked in trench warfare who decide to lay down their weapons on Christmas Eve, 1914, and come forward to shake hands and play football. The movie is light on trench warfare and focuses more on the soldiers coming together to celebrate their similarities—their Christian faith and love of music and French wine—in spite of it all. This act of grace is profound, but sadly, also temporary. For all the budding linguists out there – this one is in a mixture of French, German and English (very exciting)!
A Dinner For One
This classic is broadcast across several German TV channels and is a must-watch for Germans in the New Year. Otherwise known as ‘Der 90. Geburtstag’, A Dinner for One shows a butler struggling to help his employer to celebrate an annual dinner party which consists of several courses and lots of drinks. The ensuing mishaps provide predictably funny results. This is one to watch if you fancy some slapstick comedy on New Year’s Eve.
Vacanze di Natale
Vacanze di Natale takes place on the festive slopes of Cortina D’Ampezzo in Northern Italy where a man from Rome, falls in love with an American woman who is spending the holidays with her boyfriend. It starts with the familiar trope of two families, one “refined” and the other “vulgar,” running into each other again and again during their Christmas vacations in the resort. The storyline includes a convoluted love plot and lots of skiing action shots. So, if you love Italy, and you really love ‘80s movies, this is the film for you.
Alles ist Liebe
This 2014 German film is essentially Europe’s slightly less well-known Love Actually. Alles ist Liebe is the tale of ten men and women in Frankfurt whose stories intersect during the Christmas season. Following a remarkably similar format to Love Actually, Alles ist Liebe is based on Alles is Liefde, a 2007 Dutch film which itself was a reinterpretation of Love Actually. So basically, you could argue that Love Actually has created its own genre of international film.
8 femmes
Set at an isolated mansion in the snowy countryside of 1950s France, a family is gathered for the holiday season. But there will be no celebration – their beloved patriarch has been murdered. The killer can only be one of the eight women closest to the man of the house. Comedic situations arise with the revelations of the dark family secrets with this all-female all-star cast including Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant and Emmanuelle Béart, each playing tongue-in-cheek caricatures, from a scheming sister to a glamorous wife and bookish daughter.
Klaus
In this colourful family friendly Spanish animation, the Postal Academy’s worst student, Jesper, is sent to Smeerensburg, a small village located on an icy island above the Arctic Circle, where grumpy inhabitants barely exchange words. Jesper is about to give up and abandon his duty as a postman when he meets a local, Klaus, a mysterious carpenter who lives alone in a cabin full of handmade toys, and subsequently brings about the genesis of Santa Claus. The story is very familiar and this heart-warming movie would be enjoyed by anybody.
