MCN Interview: Christophe Barratier

Les Choristes (The Chorus), nominated for Best Foreign Film and Best Original Song Oscars, marks the directorial debut of Christophe Barratier, whose credits include two Oscar nominations as a producer in the Foreign Language and Documentary categories.

A trained musician, Barratier, 40, wrote the lyrics to the movie's Oscar nominated song "Look to Your Path," and co-wrote the screenplay with Phillipe Lopes Curval. Set in a country boarding school in postwar France, The Chorus is about how a down-at-his-heels music teacher transforms the lives of some misfit boys, and in the process, his own. The soft-spoken, self-assured filmmaker recently left his home in Paris to tour the U.S. and talk up his movie.

ANDREA GRONVALL for MCN: How did you transition to directing from your previous work as a producer and musician?

CHRISTOPHE BARRATIER: Everyone in my family was part of the movie industry or in the theatre. My parents were theatre actors… my father also was a producer. My uncle Jacques Perrin is an actor and producer (he is one of the producers and stars of The Chorus). When I was a kid, everybody was always talking about movies.

I was seven and a little bit depressed when I began to study with a musician who was not very famous or even very talented, but who was a wonderful teacher. I later studied at the Paris Conservatory very seriously until I was 18, 19 years old. After that, I don't know why, but I gave up music professionally, and came back to the cinema.

At the beginning I was writing scripts for TV movies, and then Jacques Perrin invited me to join his production company. I told him I wasn't much of an administrator; he said, "Don't worry, I know what you are talented at, so you will follow the script writing. You will search for authors and connect them with the directors and then you will work on the set." So I worked with my uncle on Microcosmos and Winged Migration.

I was so attracted by the original writing that I directed my first short movie. It was a success in France, and I was asked to direct commercials, which was a very good way to learn how to run a set. Then I began to write Les Choristes in 2002.

MCN: Interesting that you chose for your directorial feature debut a remake of Jean Dreville's 1945 movie, "La Cage aux Rossignols" (A Cage of Nightingales).

CB: It's not really a remake; I bought the rights, so for legal reasons I credit Dreville. I took from his film only the plot about a supervisor who goes to a boarding school to organize a choir. But the two movies are really, really different. All the characters, and a lot of what happens in my movie, are one part autobiographical, the other, my imagination.

MCN: Your film is a story about how a teacher uses music to get through to problem students and makes a profound difference in their young lives. Even though the choral music in the film is not religious in nature, it has a very spiritual quality.

CB: Much more than music he teaches life lessons. And I'd been living a bit of that with all the kids on the set, because every one of them was an inexperienced actor. Most of them were coming from families who were quite poor. Their parents had a lot of other priorities, (too busy) to think about art. I'd chosen them one-by-one from nearby our rural shooting location-for economical reasons, because it was much less expensive to choose kids already living in the surrounding areas.

These kids were lethargic at the beginning. They were not very involved in the music. They were mostly addicted to TV. But as filming continued, little by little I saw the difference. Day by day, they became more self-confident. They were attempting to act, they were asking me to add lines and they began to love the music they were singing. I do not think the experience changed their lives, but it opened their eyes to something else other than their own environment.

MCN: This is your first narrative feature. Where you comfortable handling these young actors and the veterans as well?

CB: It felt very natural being on the set - obviously, with my own script - although it wasn't easy with 35 amateur kids and 6 experienced adult actors. But I never felt embarrassed, even with pros like Gerard Jugnot [who plays music teacher Clement Mathieu] and Francois Berleand [who plays Rachin, the school director], who have made dozens of movies. Even if I wasn't familiar with a certain practice, I knew much more going in than other first-time directors, who have to discover everything.

What I discovered is that directing is like being the captain of the boat. One of the most important things for the director is to cast well, not only the actors, but also the technicians. You don't really direct the kids, you just choose the right kids, because these kids didn't know about acting. You had to show them for who they are… really, themselves. Likewise for a DP or sound engineer, if you make the wrong choice, you are in an impossible situation. You have to be respected. And for that, you have to be loved by your crew. But you also have to be firm and not afraid to be hated when dealing with difficult people.

MCN: You also wrote two of the songs in the film.

CB: The first is very simple, the first one sung by Clement Mathieu in the boys' dormitory. And the song at the end of the film I also wrote myself. But you know, I wrote all the lyrics not because I actually wanted to do it, but just because I had not enough money to give to a lyricist, so I said, okay, I'll do it myself. We made some hits without knowing it.

MCN: You film has created a new vogue for choral music in France…

CB: When I was young I sang in a boys' choir. I knew the power of boys' voices and I was sure the film would be very touching. I was also sure about the quality of the score written by my friend, the French composer Bruno Coulais, who also created the scores for Himalaya and Winged Migration.

But when we went to the record company, they said, hey, that's fine, but a boys' choir is really out of fashion, no one listens to that kind of music anymore. But now it's #1 on French charts, and not just movie music. It's sold over a million CDs. All the music stations and all the TV shows are asking for choirs, and especially the choir of Les Choristes. This choir, Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc, has been scheduled for 300 concerts over two years-it's mad! It's just a phenomenon in France... very unexpected.

The Chorus (Les Choristes) is now open in theatres around the country.

February 1, 2005