Les Choristes (2004)

	Also Known As: The Chorus
	Year of first release: 2004
	Director: Christophe Barratier (La Guerre des Boutons)
	Actors:  Gérard Jugnot (Les Bronzés, Une Epoque Formidable, Meilleur Espoir Féminin), François Berléand (The Transporter 1-3), Jean-Baptiste Maunier, Kad Merad (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis)
	Country: F
	Genre: Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 12.05.2016, in-flight entertainment 5" screen.
Synopsis: In 1949, the new supervisor Clément Mathieu (Jugnot) joins a private school for young boys directed by the tyrannic Rachin (Berléand). His love for music will push him to attempt new methods for educating the troublesome boys.
Review: I had heard the title of this movie several times in the past but never got to watch it. I heard it was a good French movie, and one of the first in which Gérard Jugnot could show his talent for drama after many years stuck in the comedy register. He had actually already shown this talent in the 2000 touching Meilleur Espoir Féminin and 1991 Une Epoque Formidable. Berléand is also good and Kad Merad quite unrecognizable out of the comedy register himself. And I indeed found the movie to be a good one, participating in reconciling me with French cinema after watching too many bad comedies. It may be a period movie, it does not emphasis at all on the historical events that preceded. We do feel very strongly the post-war trauma (it was after all four years only after WWII) but this feeling is not used to set the story into the larger History, rather only to make us understand a little better the reason why both adults and kids behave like they do, if not to justify their actions. I found the growing relationship between Mathieu and the boys well told, with just the right amount of challenges and confrontations to make the audience fear for the future (and the ending). And like I also felt in The Concert, the musical moments are beautiful even though outdated (who likes a young boy's choir nowadays?).
Rating: 7 /10