Imagine yourself as a teacher among a group of wayward students that type of students may cause you problems ending up in Hospital… What are you doing?
A lot of people may have a similar experience, but a few will do like what Clement Mathieu did in “The chorus” music movie !
The French film “The Choir” takes us back to a France of the past through a musician teacher’s story who had to work in an “internal” or reform, a locked fortress-like school for poor (wayward) boys from broken homes, WWII(world war 2) orphans and juvenile delinquents.
Well, since day one, Mathieu finds that boys are treated badly by educators, at their head is The headmaster who is a prissy sadist preaches a philosophy of instant punishment for all real or imagined wrongdoing.
In everyday life, Most of us walk into similar situations in various areas. Most teachers might feel down since day one, and would run from instead of improvement of current realities. They would justify their attitude and say: “the situation seemed pretty desperate”, but Mathieu found a real opportunity for turning around a group of unruly students into good and productive young men, He also wanted to achieve his dreams of having a choir sing the music he wrote. instead of the hard line approach the principal, The headmaster, insists in dealing with them, he had other ways to make boys change. He was kind with them and Taught them to sing in a choir.
Of course, it wasn’t that easy, Matthew faced many problems with the students and challenges with the headmaster who was not convinced with his tolerant behaviour, but Matthew didn’t give up, he stood up for them.
Among those students, The most important boy is angelic Morhange ( real singer: Jean-Baptiste Maunier), who’s often in trouble and refuses to join the choir, till Mathieu catches him singing by himself and discovers his star soloist. Morhange is the ultimate magic in movie, his voice possesses not only a rich natural musicality but also a haunting purity, You will enjoy listening to him singing over movie runtime. Although Morhange’s bad behaviour, Mathieu continues encouraging the boy’s singing.
“The Chorus” discusses many good ideas I wish to draw attention. It advances the theory that kids aren’t bad, with kindness and Music, their misbehavior will die out. Also not all people are bad. In fact, when people face bad situation, most of them give up and behave badly, but when They have the chance to be good …they do. In the movie some teachers affected Mathieu’s behavior and started to change themselves like gym teacher who always believed that “Music and sport have the power to change people’s lives” but he didn’t find the right environment for his thoughts in this school before Mathieu came into.
The character Mathieu is characterized by Social intelligence, courage, self-restraint and willpower, He tried to find a positive activity boys excel in instead of fighting them. He also tried to get close to students and made them feel as if he was one of them with simple actions made big difference. For example when he made Morhange watching his friend while mathieu left the class room for moments, when Mathieu came back, he saw a noisy class while Morhange was busy drawing his teacher mathieu on board. Mathieu’s reaction was to draw Morhange on board too. this action made Morhange ashamed of himself.
Another example this dialogue:
Child Pépinot: I don’t know any songs.
Clément Mathieu: Well, I’ll teach you some. For the moment, I’ll name you assistant choir master.
The chorus is an inspiring film for young men preparing to be teachers. Since teaching profession should be sacred, teachers must be careful and more aware of such issues.
This film is also good for music lovers, It is good music to your ears (movie music composed by Bruno Coulais), introduce you to choir music, so maybe you wish to sing. It is one of the most inspiring music films, While predictable, this low-key heartwarmer manages to be uplifting without overdoing the sentiment.
What is choir?
The original French title of this movie is “Les choristes ” translates as “The Choristers” or “The Choirboys”, not “The Chorus”. however, let’s find out more about choir music (You can watch this video: 10000 Japanese people singing the ending choir of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9).
A choir is an organized group of singers (such as those who sing hymns for church services), It may be accompanied by music. It traces its origins back to old Athenian where choir was singing religious/dramatic poems to worship Goddess.
If you haven’t made up your mind to watch this movie yet, listen to this playlist of best “the chorus” songs and certainly you will watch it.
Videos in the playlist:
1- “La nuit” song (meaning The night) by composer Rameau from the baroque era. It was written in a modern style for this movie.
2- “sur l’océan” song (meaning on the ocean)
3- “Cerf volant” song (meaning Kite)
4- “Vois Sur Ton Chemin” song (meaning Look out on your path)
