'Music that soothes the savage beast...'

Rating: 10/10 (5 May 2005)

LES CHORISTES (THE CHORUS) is director Christophe Berratier's first foray into the realm of full-length films and his adaptation of the 1945 film LA CAGE AUX ROSSINGNOLS written by Georges Chaperot and René Wheeler serves to introduce his talents as a master storyteller well. This tale of how music can alter the lives of even most renegade of boys is warm, sensitive, and satisfying on every level.
The story opens with the reunion of two men who were classmates at Fond de l'Etang, a boarding school for troubled boys in France in 1949. Pepinot (Didier Flammand) arrives at the door of consummate symphony conductor Pierre Morhange (Jacques Perrin) with a journal written by their beloved teacher Clement Mathieu, now dead, and the two read the journal, recalling their shared childhood experiences at Fond de l'Etang.
1949 and the Fond de l'Etang is a dreary jail-like, rundown place run by the cruel disciplinarian headmaster Rachin (François Berléand). Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot) is an older, bald, failed musician who seeks employment as a prefect in the school and immediately is forced to confront the rigors of the school's harsh discipline with the still flagrantly wild boys. Mathieu slowly wins the confidence of his boys by standing up to the cruel Rachin and when he is near his wits' end as to how to transform his class, he hears a boy sing and decides to use his musical talent to change these boys' lives. Two of the chief problem children are the angry but vocally gifted Pierre Morhange (Jean-Baptiste Maunier) and Leclerc (Théodul Carré-Cassaigne) and Mathieu coaxes them into the inner circle of his newly developing chorus. The other child who is without talent but for whom Mathieu empathizes when the child waits every Saturday for someone to claim him at the gates is Pepinot (Maxence Perrin) who Mathieu assigns as his assistant chorus master! Through a series of incidents including the cruelty of Rachin, the appearance of Violette Morhange (Pierre's poor working mother who cannot afford to feed him), the success of the chorus in the eyes of the Countess (Carol Weiss) who acts as benefactor to the school, and some evil doings of the more difficult children, Mathieu's Chorus becomes a symbol for how problem children can bond in mutual need to the enrichment music provides. Rachin cannot tolerate Mathieu's success and fires him without allowing him to say a farewell to his beloved choristers. The manner in which this is portrayed is most touching and spiritually enriching and serves to resolve the mystery of Mathieu's departure to the adult Morhange and Pepinot as they finish the journal.
Simple story, told before, but superbly acted and performed. The music is by Jean-Philippe Rameau with original songs by director Barratier and Bruno Coulais, all beautifully sung by Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc with young actor Jean-Baptiste Maunier singing his own solos. The cinematography is in the capable hands of Jean-Jacques Bouhon, Dominique Gentil, and Carlo Varini. In French with English subtitles. Highly recommended little jewel of a film! Grady Harp