The Chorus

The Chorus (2004) is set in 1949 at a boarding school for difficult boys. An unemployed music teacher takes a job as a supervisor and tries something other than the school's method, which is immediate punishment for every offence: he starts a choir. It became an unexpected phenomenon in France and one of the most watched domestic films of its year. International attention followed, with Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Song. The choir was cast from a real one. Jean-Baptiste Maunier, who plays the soloist Pierre Morhange, sang with the Saint-Marc choir in Lyon and became a household name in France after the film. Bruno Coulais wrote the music. It is Christophe Barratier's first feature, and a remake of La Cage aux rossignols from 1945. It runs 97 minutes. Good for: films about music, stories about teachers, and measured French sentiment. Less good for: the film plays it emotionally safe and softens the institution's cruelty past a certain point. The troubled boy template is familiar and the resolution arrives without much resistance.