Les Choristes (The Chorus) (2004)

It's the same old story - new teacher comes into a school, inspires the children, chaos ensues, he leaves under varying circumstances, and he leaves his legacy. We've all seen at least one film that follows these footsteps before. Admittedly, The Chorus (or Les Choristes under its true French name) is one of the better ones I can think of, but it lacks the same memorable punch as other films in the genre such as Dead Poets Society.

The film follows Clement Matthieu, who takes up the post as a music teacher at Fond de L'Etang, a boarding institution for troubled boys. After witnessing the severe actions of the headmaster Rachin, he seeks to properly discipline the boys by forming a choir, where he discovers hidden vocal talents in a shy boy named Morhange.

This film attempts to add some new elements into the fairly tired genre it falls into, such as mainly being told in flashbacks and being from the perspective of his inspired students in their future lives, however it doesn't delve as deep into these and change the formula as much as I think it wants to. It retreats back into the main recycled plot which is good enough and actually has a very engaging middle, but it's not quite enough to make The Chorus stand out from the crowd.

The characters are also simplified to bend to the general components - we have the passionate teacher who believes in the children, the severe leader who is against their actions, the students who typically consist of the shy one with a talent, the aggressive bully, the young and timid. These are all well-rounded characters and are sufficient enough, but the stereotype is never subverted, the bar never raised. It never reaches below the surface to add depth or to set up any possible connotations or moral message.

It's a perfectly serviceable school drama, but nothing standout or special here, I'm afraid. The Chorus ends up being a run-of-the-mill school scenario with the characters and story only receiving very minor adjustments that are nowhere near enough to make it escape from the fact that the film is built on cliches and linear storytelling. I would recommend this as a foreign language watch if you haven't seen one before, but even then, if you want a French film, just watch The Red Balloon or a work by the French New Wave.

The Chorus or Les Choristes gets 3 stars out of 5.