Big-Screen Views: The Choral
Looking for a film that tackles the role of art in a small town during difficult times? The Choral may be just what you’re looking for.
Film Review by Diane Urbani de la Paz
What good is art in the middle of a war? And do we have the right to modify the “masterworks” to reflect our lives right now?
“The Choral,” an old-fashioned drama with the exquisitely understated Ralph Fiennes, looks into such questions.
The story is set 110 years ago, but this film, once you settle in, feels quite relevant. We’re in the little town of Ramsden, Yorkshire, where mayor and mill boss Bernard Duxbury (Roger Allam) is funding a choral concert. For this to happen, the community needs a piece of music, a choirmaster and a decent number of singers and orchestral musicians.
Trouble is, the music Duxbury and his men might program comes mostly from German composers. The St. Matthew Passion is J.S. Bach, and the Brahms Requiem is also, alas, by a Hun. With Britain fighting Germany in World War I, this is unacceptable.
Duxbury does find a candidate for the choirmaster job who is British: Dr. Henry Guthrie (Fiennes). But he worked in Germany for years, and there have been whispers that he has “peculiarities.”
These are dire times, so Dr. Guthrie is hired and auditions for choristers begin. We behold the choirmaster listening with exquisite attention to each singer. A few are not easy to hear.
Then, when a certain soprano steps up, we and the doctor hang on her every note.
Her name is Mary. She is a nurse and a Salvation Army worker, and she sings like an angel hovering in the clouds. The Nigerian-British actor Amara Okereke mesmerizes in this role.
Mary is part of a cast of characters devastated by the war, yet carrying the spark, the life force that fuels the music they make. We don’t get to know anyone very well in the course of the movie. What we do witness is the way art transcends the worst of what humans do to one another.
That may sound melodramatic, and “The Choral” veers in that direction, especially toward the end. After all, this is an old-school movie directed by Nicholas Hytner, who made “The Madness of King George” (1994), “The Crucible” (1996) and “The Lady in the Van” (2015). Fiennes imbues the story with his inimitable grace—not surprising from the actor who has commanded all of our attention in films from “The English Patient” to “Skyfall” to “Conclave.”
As choirmaster, Dr. Guthrie chooses “The Dream of Gerontius,” by Edward Elgar. The composer had been knighted by King Edward VII 12 years earlier, so he’s all right.
The rehearsal process is not smooth. There are romantic dramas among the singers who are not yet conscripted into the military. They ask: Why are we doing this oratorio about an old man?
Against all expectations, the right soloist appears. Clyde is a soldier who has lost his arm in battle, and he can sing until all listeners' hearts are broken open. Dr. Guthrie tells Clyde (Jacob Dudman) that he has the stuff of genius: pain both physical and spiritual, a hellish life experience all too soon.
When Clyde sings, the choir and the trio of musicians—that’s all the town could muster—rise up and enfold him. They reimagine “The Dream of Gerontius” to fit the world they are living in, and make it an epic of their own.
Then a famous individual deigns to visit Ramsden, and hears that Dr. Guthrie has presided over changes to the masterwork. It’s an affront to this person, who leaves in a huff. We do not care.
The final performance of the oratorio, given before several of the choristers board a train headed for the front, is a play in itself. It shows how artists, having come together, put the soul into a work. And that, no matter the time period, is solace for the wounded.
The Choral, 1 hour and 53 minutes, starring Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Amara Okereke, Emily Fairn, Jacob Dudman and Tamzin Griffin. Directed by Nicholas Hytner. Currently showing at The Rose Theatre.
