The Chorus (2004) on Netflix
PG-1320041h 37mComedyDramaMusic
A failed musician, Clément Mathieu, becomes supervisor at Fond de l'Étang, a boarding school for unruly boys. Headmaster Rachin punishes every misstep. Mathieu decides to teach the boys to sing.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.9/1072,915 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes68%
Trailer
Plot summary
Rachin, the headmaster of Fond de l'Étang, believes in action and reaction: any boy out of line at the countryside boarding school meets a severe consequence, and the staff spend their days watching for trouble instead of teaching. The boys are an unruly group. In January 1949, Clément Mathieu arrives as the new supervisor, a middle-aged man who has failed at other things and does not believe in the headmaster's method. Among the students is Pépinot, one of the youngest, who stands by the gate every Saturday saying his father is coming for him. Pierre Morhange, older, keeps to himself and erupts in bursts of defiance. Hearing the boys sing rude songs about him, Mathieu plans to form a choir.
Cast
- Cyril Bernicotas Le Querrec
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Chorus (2004)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director Christophe Barratier wanted a real singer for young Pierre Morhange and found him while touring French choirs for the soundtrack: 12-year-old Jean-Baptiste Maunier of Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc, whose voice Barratier called "exceptional and very moving" and composer Bruno Coulais "incredible".
- The film's boarding-school setting was faked as winter: foam and salt served as artificial snow and green leaves were cleared from the grounds because shooting began in summer, while walls were scorched and stripped of paint to look "dilapidated".
- Gérard Jugnot, with whom Barratier shared a taste for old French cinema and actors such as Noël-Noël, liked the story but insisted it had to be set in the past—otherwise his character would have become someone who "teaches rapping in the suburbs".
- Grégory Gatignol, playing the bully Mondain, had trouble behaving menacingly towards Gérard Jugnot in their first scene together; Jugnot described him as "too nice".
- For the choir scenes, the young actors' song lyrics were written on large cue cards and on the classroom's blackboard to help them.
