Though it unquestionably belongs within the Euro-pudding genus, The Chorus mercifully avoids the sickly sweetness of such confections as Cinema Paradiso or anything marred by the presence of Roberto Benigni, despite taking a rather sentimental journey into quaint Stella Artois country.
Set in a French reformatory, this reworking of Jean Dreville’s 1945 film, A Cage Of Nightingales, follows M. Mathieu, a downtrodden unemployed music teacher (Jugnot), into a grim 1950s boarding school populated by ‘troubled children’, or more accurately a bunch of mischievous shiny-faced urchins. Despite the misgivings of the tyrannical school director (Berleand), the kindly Mathieu instigates a musical programme and soon his troubled charges are chirping like a high testicled G4. When not conducting and composing, Mathieu finds something like romance with Marie Bunel, the mother of his favourite burgeoning nightingale, and before you can say ‘the universality of music’, lives are changed for the best.
I hardly need to explain that The Chorus is a very Miramaxical globe-friendly product, though several nods to Vigo and Truffaut distinguish Monsieur Barratier’s unabashed nostalgia trip from more anonymous generic efforts. It’s a charming exercise, if a little spiceless, happily more Mr. Chips than Mr. Holland. There’s a relief.

Running Time 95mins. Cert 12a. Opens April 15th.
Stay tuned to hotpress.com for an exclusive online interview with The Chorus’ Marie Bune.