Joyeux Noël (2005)

If we could read the secret history of our enemies we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This movie is inspired by a true story, which happened during World War I, at Christmas Eve 1914, in many different places of the battlefront.

In 1914, World War I, the bloodiest war ever at that time in human history, was well under way. However on Christmas Eve, numerous sections of the Western Front called an informal, and unauthorized, truce where the various front-line soldiers of the conflict peacefully met each other in No Man's Land to share a precious pause in the carnage with a fleeting brotherhood. This film dramatizes one such section as the French, Scottish and German sides partake in the unique event, even though they are aware that their superiors will not tolerate its occurrence.

watch the trailer

Le Scaphandre et le papillon (2007)

Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is one of the most poetic films ever made and my personal favorite. Julian Schnabel's work focuses on the lives of other artists. As an fine artist himself he brings a unique sensibility to each project. He completed Basquiat in 1996 and Before Night Falls in 2000. Less is certainly more in this case.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a translation of the French memoir Le scaphandre et le papillon by journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. It describes what his life was like after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome. It also details what his life was before the stroke.

On December 8, 1995, Bauby, the editor-in-chief of Elle magazine, suffered a stroke and lapsed into a coma. He awoke 20 days later, mentally aware of his surroundings but physically paralyzed with the exception of some movement in his head and left eye. The entire book was written by Bauby blinking his left eyelid, in July and August 1996. 

A transcriber repeatedly recited a French language frequency-ordered alphabet (E, S, A, R, I, N, T, U, L, etc.), until Bauby blinked to choose the next letter. The book took about 200,000 blinks to write and an average word took approximately two minutes. The book also chronicles everyday events for a person with locked-in syndrome. These events include playing at the beach with his family, getting a bath, and meeting visitors.

watch the trailer for the film

Låt den rätte komma in (2008)

Spoiler alert, you should stop reading this review and watch this film without watching trailers. I highly recommend watching it alone in a dark theater but if you need company tell your guests to shut it! If you insist on watching a trailer before you go see a film you can visit the link below.

This film is about a fragile, anxiou boy, 12-year-old Oskar is regularly bullied by his stronger classmates but never strikes back. The lonely boy's wish for a friend seems to come true when he meets Eli, also 12, who moves in next door to him.

But Eli's arrival coincides with a series of gruesome deaths and attacks. Though Oskar realizes that she' a vimpire, his friendship with her is stronger than his fear...

Swedish filmmaker Tomas Alfredson weaves friendship, rejection and loyalty into a disturbing, darkly atmospheric, yet unexpectedly tender tableau of adolescence. The feature is based on the best-selling novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, which the U.K. press qualified as "reminiscent of Stephen King at his best."

watch the trailer, be sure to click on trailer and not clip