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By Joanne Hilty
Special to the Rappahannock News
“The Chorus” is a beautiful and moving film. It is a simple story which delves into such issues as abuse of power and authority and the tyranny of adults’ low expectations of children. A huge hit in France, the Rappahannock Association for the Arts and Community is showing “The Chorus” at The Theatre in Washington, VA, Friday, August 5, 8:00 p.m.
A gentle and shy teacher named Clement Mathieu, played with great depth by Gerard Jugnot, takes a job at a forbidding-looking school he knows little about. The school’s name, Fond de L’Etang, means bottom of the pond and signifies hitting rock bottom. (The film was shot at a castle in the French countryside.) The students who attend are a collection of delinquent, miscreants and mischievous orphans. With the exception of one older kid with psychopathic tendencies, the boys seem just to need some tough love, boundaries and a bit more academic challenge. Instead, they are routinely beaten, put in solitary confinement and sadistically abused.
The school is presided over by the vicious principal Rachin (Francois Berleand),who locks horns with the kindly Mathieu. Mathieu’s innate goodness modifies punishments to fit crimes: One bratty kid who injured an old caretaker is
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