Christophe Barratier's Les Choristes | The Chorus (2004)

Les Choristes is Christophe Barratier's first directed film, and is based on Jean Dréville's 1945 film La Cage aux rossignols.* It begins in 1999 with the renowned conductor Pierre Morhange (Jacques Perrin) returned from New York to be greeted at his home in Paris by old schoolfriend Pépinot (Didier Flamand), who gives him a diary written by his old music teacher Clément Mathieu (Gérard Jugnot).

Then follows the main part of the film, which is a long flashback to 1949, when out-of-work music teacher Mathieu begins work as a humble pion, a menial supervisory job usually performed by much younger people, particularly (today at least) university students. The school is 'Fond de l'étang' (lit. 'Bottom of the pond'), perhaps a fitting name for an establishment for troubled children run by the violent and egotistical tyrant Rachin (François Berléand).

The children are rowdy and insulting to begin with, although Mathieu decides to introduce discipline by teaching them to sing, soon realising the huge potential of one of the boys, Morhange (now played by Jean-Baptiste Maunier). Mathieu earns a great deal of respect from the boys, who make dramatic progress as a choir, with Morhange as the lead singer: the wish is for him to progress to the music conserservatoire in Lyon.

On the day when Mathieu takes the boys for a walk in the woods the delinquent Pascal Mondain (Grégory Gatignol), who briefly stayed at the school and was beaten by Rachin for a theft he didn't commit, sets fire to the school. Rachin dismisses Mathieu for negligence and forbids the boys to say goodbye to him, although they throw paper planes out of the window wishing him farewell. Taking the bus away from school the young pupil Pépinot (now played by Maxence Perrin) begs Mathieu to allow him to follow him, which he does.

We learn from the mature Morhange that he won the scholarship to the conservatoire, that an investigation into Rachin's thuggish behaviour was carried out and that he was dismissed of his functions. The mature Pépinot reveals that Mathieu continued his life as a music teacher. Oddly, I was reminded of Lindsay Anderson's If..., although that is a much more complicated film, an allegory of revolution seen through the prism of an English private school.

*The story of this earlier film was in turn directly inspired by an existing educational centre, Ker Goat, where various people were working towards the development of children in difficulty by the practice of choral singing and innovative educational techniques.