A light, simple but a very intelligent and emotional film

Rating: 8/10 (30 April 2006)

When you look back at typically American films, with big budgets and heavy action scenes to stun and maximise viewing pleasure...they so very often fail. Recently i have been getting into foreign language films from France(Amelie), Italy(Cinema Paradiso) and Korea(Oldboy)and all of them have a lower budget and are less successful financially than your average Bruce Willis shoot'em'up. All the films i have encountered have had higher ratings and in some cases cult followings! What I'm saying is, these films obviously entertain (one of the soul purposes for films) so what is the purpose of the big budget pop corn movie is people are giving these independent and foreign language films a chance and are ....actually enjoying them!
'The Chorus' is a perfect example of this. It may not be the best film for depth and getting your teeth into and analysing but it does deeply entertain, it's an emotional experience for any audience. The acting is superb, very simple, almost slapstick comedy at times, comical timing is excellent by the supervisor (Gérard Jugnot), the performances of the children are brilliant but the only one who let them was the main boy at times. Well filmed with very appetising visual colours when you go on this journey of transformation of the school, the colour goes from depressing greys, to lively bold colours. The music is light but effective, a bit like the film. A little on the short side also! And all in all it is a brilliant little chapter in French cinema, which I have only just touched the surface of.
Highly recommended!