Voice of an angel (The Chorus (DVD))

Member Name: MaryanneH

Product:	The Chorus (DVD)
Date:	10/12/05 (106 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful film

Disadvantages: Not mainstream taste

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 when he first starts, The headmaster is strict and dispenses tough discipline, the school has a very definite policy of action, reaction! The smallest misdemeanour is punished harshly, either with violence or solitary confinement. M. Mathieu's first introduction to the school is a practical joke gone wrong, resulting in the caretaker being badly injured. The schools reaction is to punish any random boy, until the true culprit owns up.

Naturally with a title like, 'Les Choristes' M. Mathieu gets through to the boys through song, he hears them singing dirty songs and decides that he will form a choir. In the manner of 'Mr Hollands Opus' he writes all the music for them, and when the choir is banned by the headmaster, he teaches them in their dormitory at night.


Considering the setting of the school there have to be sub plots running through it following the misbehaviour of the boys and how it is dealt with, and the repercussions of the punishments, particularly when they were misplaced. There is one particular boy, very hard, who is unfairly expelled to a young offenders institution. This creates one of my favourite lines in the film when Mathieu, who realises that there is not really any evidence that the boy was guilty, and he shouts out the window 'non', then quietly to himself 'il est ma seule baritone', (No he is my only baritone!) The boy was innocent.

The film is certainly not a happy ever after, although one of the boys goes on to great things, the institution in which they were raise will undoubtably have repercussions for many later on in life.

The film is naturally compared to Mr Hollands Opus, but I don't feel there is any comparison, I much preferred this one, and felt Mr Holland to be a bit a wimp, whereas Clement Mathieu is a good man who will stand up for the boys when necessary.

The music is amazing 'La nuit' being my absolute favourite. The soundtrack is also available at amazon for £14.99.

The film is directed by Christophe Barratier, who seems to be relative newcomer to directing and I feel he captured the required atmosphere beautifully, the story was handled with a great deal of sensitivity. Gerard Jugnot plays Clemant Mathieu and is perfectly cast, looking like an aging music teacher should, which I have to say doesn't bode well for my future (I'm a piano teacher!) The only thing I recognise that he has done was a French voice over for the magic roundabout and a waiter in Herbie goes to Monte Carlo in 1977, having said that he has a huge cinematic listing and is apparently very well known in France.

The DVD has the usual 'making of the film' extras which I usually avoid but did find this one very interesting. It was good to see the boys in their normal clothes which made the fantastic voices all the more poignant. They were all delighted to be working with all the adult actors, who are all well known in France but I have heard of none of them. They also showed how they created some of the atmosphere, the film opens in the middle of winter and to create this illusion they had to remove every scrap of green, so pull all the leaves off the ivy, without killing the plant, to make it look like winter. I believed completely the first time I watched it, but having seen this it did look too warm the second time around.

This is a French film, produced in French, and although my French is ok, I still used the English subtitles as I didn't want to miss any subtleties through lack of understanding. As it was, and as is perfectly usual in this situation, many of the subtleties are missed in the translation anyway, but I didn't have any trouble understanding it.

So do I recommend this film, well it is certainly not for everybody, it is in French, with choir boys in it, and if you are after an all Hollywood action film, its not for you. But if you fancy spending a couple of hours watching an ok story (lets face it teacher saves a class of disturbed school kids has been done, many times over) but the music in it is truly beautiful, the way it all comes together the fact that not all the boys can sing gives it a sense of realism, one of them is even given the job of music stand! it has a charm and gentleness that contrasts with the grit of the subject matter and the ending is not as you would expect. Then give it a try. It is available at amazon for £13.20, and is available to rent.

Thank you for reading.

Summary: Amazing choir boy voices against the grit of a post war background