Analysis Of The Christmas Party

The scene started off by showing the English trench at the eye level of the soldiers in the Christmas party so audience would feel that they are also a part of the party. The priest shows up and walks through the party. Notice the camera is following the priest, this is because the director wants to convey the priest is going to be the spotlight in this scene. The soldiers said their greetings to the priest and the priest sat down at an empty spot and held a bagpipe. The camera switches to the English lieutenant, where the lieutenant asks the priest to “give us a song”. The camera switches back to the priest preparing his posture,and the camera switches to a soldier, where he suggests “I’m Dreaming of Home”. The director chooses to switch from character to character so the audience would know who is talking and to form a feeling where the audience is also part of the party. Notice that

The camera continued to show the expressions of the German soldiers listening and the camera zoomed in on the German lieutenant staring into space while listening to the English singing. The director did this to show that the German soldiers are thinking of their home and is getting nostalgic by the song “I’m Dreaming of Home”. The camera zooms back to the priest singing, with a sad expression. Then the camera goes to the French soldier crawling to the German trench. He was listening to the English singing and forgot about his mission, but he snaps back to reality and continues his secret mission. The camera switches back to the English trench where soldiers that aren’t singing is watching cheerfully from the side. The camera switches back to the English lieutenant singing with other soldiers, and when the song ended, the soldiers are all