Choristes, Les

Synopsis: Le Fond de l'Etang (The Bottom of The Pond) is a boarding school whose name well describes the situation in which the pupils and their minders are being held. The students are troubled children who all suffered during the Second World War. Some of them are orphans;others lost one of their parents. They all share the same classroom, and are being taught by Mr Rachin (François Berléand), the very repressive director, and Mr Langlois (Philipe Du Janerand), the mathematics teacher. Chabert (a surprising Kad Merad) and Father Maxence complete the team, until a new supervisor is hired. Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot), a failed musician, discovers the school and the children with us.

Les Choristes, a remake of a 1947 film, La Cage Aux Rossignols, by Jean Dreville, is a sentimental drama, edging towards comedy, well acted and generally well made that a school age audience will relate to whilst adults will find sufficient to sustain their interest.

The kids are not alright, and the best way to dominate them, according to the director, is the 'Action-Reaction' method. This means harshly punishing the tormented children and forcing them to study. Here lies the real subject of the movie, the abuse of authority. The new supervisor, concerned by the repressive system and longing to do some music, creates a choir and slowly manages to win their trust.

One of the main themes of the film is that the adults are as much imprisoned in their social personae as the kids are in their school. The students, played in almost all cases by non-professional actors picked up in the area of Clermond-Ferrand, are engaging, however, it is the adult characters, oppressed by post-war numbness, who are more interesting. Unfortunately muc of this is schematically portrayed and mostly told through stereotypes. The only really dynamic development, the attraction between Clément and one of the kids' mother, is hastily buried.

Outside of the school, real life doesn't seem to exist, rural France is depicted in a purely nostalgic way, as a complement to quite predictable sentimental story at the heart of the film. The music is, however,superb, holding the movie together and helping to focus on the children. Although there are only two or three important pieces in the film, the choral numbers sound very good. The lead singer (Jean-Baptiste Mounier) has a breathtaking voice, and Bruno Coulais has composed and directed an impressive score. If beautiful singing and a sentimental story sounds like your kind of thing, you will love Les Choristes.

 

 

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