Gerard Jugnot is extraordinary as a failed musician who arrives at a boarding school and transforms the rebel children

Rating: 7/10 (23 August 2017)

This is a marvelous ode to classic music , to childhood plenty of innocence , friendship , cooperation , curiosity and comradeship . Being inspired by the film La Cage Aux Rossignols (1945). It revolves around the widely successful orchestra conductor Pierre Morhange (Jacques Perrin) , who reminisces about his childhood inspirations when he and his former classmate Pépinot (Didier Flamand) read the diary of their old music teacher Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot , thanks to this box-office film he earned the title of the highest-paid French player in 2004, overtaking Jean Reno , Jean Dujardin , Vincent Perez and Gérard Depardieu). Set in 1948, in the post-war season at rural ¨Fond De L'Etang Internat¨ , there arrives a watcher as well as professor of music , Clement Mathieu , as he becomes the supervisor at a boarding school for the rehabilitation for minors . What he discovers disconcerts him , as the current situation is repressive with a stiff-upper-lip Principal (Francois Berland) who ruthlessly punishes some rebel kiddies . This troubled ragbag of lop-sided children is unwittingly awaiting an empathetic patron who believes in transformation through the conductor's baton rather than the cane executed by the headmaster . As Clement becomes into an enlightened Samaritan pedagogue with hopes for their hearts . While , a young Morhange is the badly behaved son of single mother Violette (Marie Bunel) and Clement brightens up the school and assembles a choir , leading to the discovery of Morhange's musical and physical talents and a transformation in the children . Through the power of song , Clement tries to turn the students . And Clement's ditzy fancy for one boy's mother stretches the plot .
French cinema has a great ability in dealing with films about childhood , with interesting and thought-provoking messages that are a clear example of an allegory of notorious values , such as friendship , honor , philanthropy , collaboration and mistreating denounce . This is an splendid ode to childhood , a nostalgic trip to the past in which we become children along half and hour , where everything was discovered , in which the songs and chorus were serious things . Sincere in its sentimentality , it is cutely optimist that believes in the redemption as metaphor of the golden heart . It's a kid's movie but its strength lies in its universal character , not a story just for kids , it's for everyone . This entertaining film displays a colorful as well as evocative cinematography as well as a wonderful musical score . Boarding school movies hit a peak with ¨Jean Vigo's Zero De Conduite¨, ¨Lindsay Anderson's If¨ and ¨Truffaut's 400's blows¨ , but this French box office takes its enjoyable inspiration from a different tradition , the motivational piety , goodness and mirth of ¨Goodbye Mr Chips¨ and its wake . Awesome acting by Gerard Jugnot -also co-producer- as a decorous , self-minded chorus conductor , not instantly set for the unabashed hostility his students show him . Support cast is frankly magnificent with the acting more self-contained than the constantly swelling soundtrack , as the following actors shine : Kad Merad , Jacques Perrin , Francois Berland , Didier Flamand , and the child angel face Jean-Baptiste Maunier who was the soloist of Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc , and other actual boys choir soloists .
Principal photography by Jean-Jacques Bouhon , Dominique Gentil , Carlo Varini took place on location at the Château De Ravel in Puy-De-Dôme . Using foam and salt as artificial snow and green leaves were removed from the grounds , since the beginning of the movie was filmed in the summer, but set in the Winter . As it was filmed in the middle of summer which was hard for the actors to wear winter clothes . A model of the boarding school featured in the film at a miniature railway museum in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne and fog machines were also used around the castle . It features a sensitive soundtrack , which was composed by Bruno Coulais and performed by the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Deyan Pavlov and the choir Les Petits Chanteurs De Saint-Marc , as the producers chose to hire real boys choir soloist . It displays heartwarming , sentimental choral performances in general , the Chorus translates into a strong , albeit repetitive album.
The motion picture was well directed by Christophe Barratier (L'outsider , París, París , War of the buttons) who gives an approach exquisite and original ; in fact , this was the #1 movie at the French box office , with more than 8.6 million admissions . It is a great portrait about unfortunate post-war orphans , appointed to children as well as adults .