Films about student-teacher relationships have always made up a sub-genre that has inspired film-makers all over the world. More often than not, the storyfocuses on how a good teacher inspires a student (or a group of students) from a difficult background to believe in themselves and their capacities and not only enjoy learning, but also overcome all the obstacles the movie’s plot throws on their way to succeed in graduating. The result is often a feel-good drama that is light on the drama and may have a degree of comedy thrown in for good measure (a pleasant exception to this rule is the recent film The Emperor's Club, with Kevin Kline).

 

Les choristes (literally "the choir boys" but The Chorus is the English title) is a French feature that remains pretty much within the boundaries set out by its numerous predecessors (including one film, the 1945 La cage aux rossignols/The Cage of Nightingales, of which this is a direct remake) but somehow actually delivers a picture that is much more satisfying than most of them. It is one of those films where everything seems to be in the right place: actors, cinematography, production design and soundtrack. There is nothing new here, but as a piece of music written three hundred years ago but performed by a virtuoso today, it can still give us immense pleasure.

 

The film starts with a very short prologue, in which we meet grey-haired conductor Pierre Morhange (Jacques Perrin) in a dressing room in New York. According to a magazine cover on the wall, he is the most famous conductor of them all. He does not want to be disturbed, but takes a phone call anyway when they tell him it is "about his mother". Back in France for his mother's funeral, he meets an old class-mate called Pépinot (Didier Flamand), who tells him that their old boarding school music teacher, Clément Mathieu, has died also and he wanted Pierre to have the diary he wrote as a teacher. As soon as Pierre starts to read the diary, we are transported back to the boarding school he and Pépinot attended, but with one difference; they now look at their school through their teacher’s eyes.

 

Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot) is a quite talented musician, but in 1949 rural France, there is not a lot of work to be found. He becomes an assistant-teacher at a boarding school for boys, optimistically called "Le fond de l’etang" (The Bottom of the Pond’). It is a boarding school for children with mostly behavioural problems – and there are some orphans too. Mr Mathieu is at first somewhat taken aback as he learns that the school is ruled rather tyrannically by the headmaster Rachin (François Berléand), who uses the "action, reaction" rule as an excuse for beating up and locking children away. Mathieu is perhaps a quiet man, but he is not too frightened to stay on and see if there is something that can be done about it. Since he is a musician and he is writing a choral piece in his free time, he is surprised to learn that there are no music lessons given at Le fond de l’etang. This might be his chance to get his classes to shut up and listen to him.

 

He starts teaching the boys how to sing and even writes a special piece for them. Of course things do not run so smoothly, and many obstacles are to be overcome. One of the biggest trouble-makers is Pierre Morhange (now played by Jean-Baptiste Maunier), a kid "with the face of an angel but the character of the devil". This little devil also has a very pretty singing voice, and Mr Mathieu is almost forced to make Pierre participate and be nice. The fact that Pierre has a single mother that is very pretty too (so pretty that rumours have it she must be a prostitute) and that Mr Mathieu is really quite interested in making her happy, only seems to complicate matters.

 

The ending is nicely understated, finding a balance between a soppy happy ending and something too grim and bleak. The film benefits from good acting all around; Jugnot has the physique du rôle of a musician not wanting to teach but neither wanting to leave these kids in this barbarous place. Most of the child-actors are actually singers from an existing choir, though their acting abilities would not lead one to think they had never acted before. They are completely natural bullies, sweet orphans or nasty kids.

 

The film was made on location, at a French castle in the province of Puy-de-Dôme, and both its interior and exterior scenes ooze with atmosphere. The cinematography by Dominique Gentil gives the whole story a fable-like character, but it would have to be a purely European fable, one that does not forget that stories have darker sides too. As fables do, the story itself touches on larger subjects such as teacher-children relations and how and why education can make a difference. Les choristes knows to convey an incredible wealth of ideas and thoughts about these themes without ever being preachy or "teacher-like".

 

I was incredibly surprised by how much I liked this film. I expected a very by-the-numbers teacher-student feel-good movie, but instead became immersed in something altogether more satisfying, rich in detail and thought-provoking.

 

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