Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004)

3/13/2015

The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004) - The inspiring-teacher masterpiece

♥♥♥♥♥♥

+ Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Family Movie of the Year + Best French Movie of the Year + Best Mega-Hit of the Year + Best Music Movie of the Year

The rustic, original poster for Christophe Barratier's The Chorus

QUICK REVIEW:

Our hero arrives to a wretched boys school with uncouth kids and unappealing teachers. As an assisting teacher there, he questions the punitive methods of the place and starts a chorus.

The Chorus is a glorious film from beginning to end, which is narratively as well as visually elegant, as it relays its story in an increasingly pleasing aesthetic, while the lives of the boys and their institution also improves. The result of deft cinematography by Jean-Jacques Bouhon (The World of Hemmingway (2012)), Dominique Gentil (Kandisha (2008)) and Carlo Varini (The Big Blue/Le Grand Bleu (1988)).
The film features wonderful acting performances, especially from the protagonist played by Gérard Jugnot (Paris 36/Faubourg 36 (2008)), whose shoulders carry the film and do so with compassionate splendor. The boys, headed by striking wunderkind Jean-Baptiste Maunier (Hellphone (2007)), were found from laborious auditioning (out of reportedly 2,000 heads), and they really are movingly good.
It is refreshing that so much actually succeeds for the teacher hero. - We have seen quite a few inspiring-teacher school films like this before The Chorus, - and also some good ones, - but this film transcends the lot because of its extra dimension; the beauty which can, and here is, expressed in singing. With music by Bruno Coulais (Song of the Sea (2014)).
This touching masterpiece is co-written by director Christophe Barratier (Paris 36) and Philippe Lopes-Curval (War of the Buttons/La Nouvelle Guerre des Boutons (2011)), based on the story A Cage of Nightingales/La Cage aux Rossignols, which was the basis of a popular French film with the same title from 1945.

Related posts:

Top 10: Best French movies

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Top 10: The best adaptations reviewed by Film Excess to date

Watch the US trailer for the film here

Cost: 5.5 mil. €
Box office: 71 mil. €
= Huge hit
[The Chorus was Oscar-nominated as Best Foreign Film and for Best Song. It made 3.6 mil. $ (just 4 % of its total gross) in North America, 2 mil. $ (2 %) in the UK and a stunning 48.7 mil. $ (59 % of the total gross) in its native France, where 8.5 mil. people paid admission. It was also a big hit in Spain, where it made 7.2 mil. €.]

What do you think of The Chorus?
Is this the best inspiring-teacher movie ever made?

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William Friedkin has died

Born in Chicago, Friedkin accrued TV credits prior to his advance to the big screen as the director of Good TImes (1967), The Birthday Party (1968), The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and The Boys in the Band (1970) before his major breakthrough, The French Connection (1971), for which he won his only Oscar. He followed it up with the even bigger smash, The Exorcist (1973), arguably the best horror film of all time, for which he was Oscar-nominated. Later credits include Sorcerer (1977), Cruising (1980), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Rampage (1987), Rules of Engagement (2000), Killer Joe (2011) and The Devil and Father Amorth (2017, documentary). Friedkin passed away at age 87. R.I.P.

Louise Fletcher has passed away

Born in Alabama to deaf parents, Fletcher got her first credits in late-1950s TV-series.She took a 10 year-long sabbatical to devote her time to motherhood after the release of A Gathering of Eagles, but then came back and soon saw her career's most important part, as Nurse Ratched in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), for which she won her sole Oscar. Later credits include Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Lucky Star (1980), Brainstorm (1983), Two Moon Junction (1988), Cruel Intentions (1999), A Perfect Man (2013) and many more. Fletcher passed away at age 88. R.I.P.

Jean-Luc Godard has passed away

Born in Paris, France, Godard lived much of his life in Switzerland. He wrote for French film criticism magazine Cahiers du Cinema and became foundational for the New French Wave that inspired new waves in scores of other countries across the world with his Breathless (1960). Later credits include A Woman Is A Woman (1961), Vivre Sa Vie (1962), Le Petit Soldat (1962), Contempt (1963), Alphaville (1965), Pierrot le Fou (1965), 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Weekend (1967), Every Man for Himself (1980), King Lear (1987), Century of Cinema (1995, documentary), Goodbye to Language (2014) and many more. Godard died of assisted suicide at age 91. R.I.P.

Wolfgang Petersen has died

James Caan has died

Caan was born the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany in New York. He got his start on TV in the early 1960s. His credits include El Dorado (1966), The Rain People (1969), Brian's Song (1971, TV movie), The Godfather (1972), - for which he earned his only Oscar nomination, - Slither (1973), The Gambler (1974), Funny Lady (1975), Rollerball (1975), Silent Movie (1976), Hide in Plain Sight (1980), - the only film he also directed, - Thief (1981), Misery (1990), Honeymoon in Vegas (1992), Bottle Rocket (1996), Eraser (1996), Dogville (2003), Elf (2003), Las Vegas (2003-07), Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009) and many more. Caan passed away at age 82. R.I.P.

Jean-Louis Trintignant has died

Born in Vaucluse, France, Trintignant's theatrical debut as an actor was in If All the Guys in the World... (1955). Later credits include ...And God Created Woman (1956), The Seven Deadly Sins (1961), Inferno (1964), A Man and A Woman (1966), My Love, My Love (1967), A Man to Kill (1967), The Great Silence (1968), Z (1969), The Assassination (1972), Three Colors: Red (1994), Amour (2012), Happy End (2017) and many more. He also wrote and directed two films in the 1970s. Trintignant passed away at age 91. R.I.P.

Ray Liotta has died

Adopted from an orphenage at a young age, Liotta got hooked on acting in high school. He had various TV credits in the late 1970s and early 80s, with his film debut in The Lonely Lady (1983). Later credits include Something Wild (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Goodfellas (1990), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), Narc (2002), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Youth in Revolt (2009), The Details (2011), Killing THem Softly (2012), The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Shades of Blue (2016-18), The Simpsons (2018, TV-series), Marriage Story (2019), The Many Saints of Newark (2021), Black Bird (2022, TV-series) and many more. Liotta passed away at age 67 in his sleep while on production in the Dominican Republic. R.I.P.

Philip Baker Hall has died

Born in Ohio, Hall didn't start acting until he was 30. His long list of credits include Zabriskie Point (1970), Miami Vice (1987, TV-series), Midnight Run (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Cheers (1993, TV-series), Hard Eight (1996), The Rock (1996), Air Force One (1997), Boogie Nights (1997), Seinfeld (1991-98), Rush Hour (1998), The Insider (1999), Magnolia (1999), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Bruce Almighty (2003), Dogville (2003), The Zodiac (2005), Zodiac (2007), Curb Your Enthusiasm (2004-09), Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011), Modern Family (2011-12) and many more. Hall passed away at age 90. R.I.P.

William Hurt has passed away

Born in Washington D.C., Hurt's first film role was the lead in Altered States (1980). Later credits include Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), Gorky Park (1983), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned his only Oscar as Best Actor; Chilrdren of a Lesser God (1986), for which he was also Oscar-nominated; Broadcast News (1987), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; Smoke (1995), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), A History of Violence (2005), for which he was again Oscar-nominated; The Good Shepherd (2006), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010) and many more. Hurt passed away at age 71. R.I.P.

Ivan Reitman has passed away

Born in Chechoslovakia, now Slovakia, Reitman's family fled the Soviet regime to Austria, then Toronto, when he was 4 years old. Reitman broke into movies as a director with Foxy Lady (1971). Later credits include Cannibal Girls (1973), Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981), Ghostbusters (1984), Twins (1988), Ghostbusters II (1989), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Junior (1994), Father's Day (1997), Evolution (1998), No Strings Attached (2011), Draft Day (2014) and more. Reitman's son Jason Reitman is also a great filmmaker. Reitman passed away at age 75. R.I.P.

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

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3/13/2015

The Chorus/Les Choristes (2004) - The inspiring-teacher masterpiece

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