The Chorus (DVD)

Les Choristes I have a tune running around in my head, its been there for a few weeks now but in all honesty, I'm in no rush to get rid of it. It has the pure sweetness of a soprano choir boy rising emotionally with a beautiful, simple melody and it keeps me smiling. The voice is that of Jean-Baptiste Maunier, the film is last years 'best foreign film' oscar winner - Les Choristes. Les Choristes is set in post war France, in a correctional boarding school for young boys. Le Fond l'etang, Clemant Mathieu is an unemployed music teacher who becomes their new teacher. He finds the way the children are treated at the school incomprehensible ...  Read the complete review

The movie starts with a brief prologue, where we see a renowned classical conductor on a journey to attend his mother's funeral. We then move into the past, into his childhood, the school where he was brought up, and we also see where his passion for music has come from. The main part of the movie then starts with a middle-aged teaching assistant, Clement Mathieu (played by Gerard Jugnot) arriving at a school to start a new job. The date is 1949, and the school is the Fond d-Etang school for delinquent boys - supposedly the worst kind of unreformable delinquents - the name of the school translates as 'Bottom of the pond' or 'Rock Bottom', so that says it ...  Read the complete review

Set in 1948 in a French school called 'Ford de l'etang' (rock bottom). This school is exactly that, the bottom of the heap. It is a correctional boarding school for difficult boys. The story begins with Clement Mathieu (Gerard Jugnot), an unemployed music teacher who finds a job working as a supervisor at Ford de l'etang. He is shocked at the brutal and harsh methods used by the head teacher, Rachin (Francois Berleand), and sets out to change the boys using his own methods; acquainting them with the magic and power of music. Les Choristes is based on a true story, which makes it all the more touching. Watching this film and listening to the beauty of the ...  Read the complete review

I have to admit i do not often watch foreign films as i do not enjoy reading sub titles and find them distracting and they often move too fast than i can actually read them! However i watched the Chorus a few months back and have watched it four times since...it is one of my fav films of all time. It tells a simple but sweet story and is beautiful in its compositions and the way it tells the story. The film is set in a boarding school in France for naughty voys. A new teacher joins the school and decides to set up a choir. He finds that one of the schools naughtiest boys has the best voice. The teacher experiences many challenges in trying to get naughty boys ...  Read the complete review