Finely balanced voices of postwar France

Christophe Barratier’s “The Chorus,” a runaway hit in France last year and the country’s official Oscar entry, is a well-nigh irresistible film celebrating the redemptive power of music. The time is 1949, a bleak postwar era when France, still dealing with children orphaned or deeply troubled in the aftermath of the Occupation, established a network of reform schools that adhered to a rigid “spare the rod, spoil the child” policy.

Such a school is the aptly named Fond de l’Etang -- literally “bottom of the pond,” or rock bottom. It’s a rundown 19th century academy in the country, and in January 1949, Clement Mathieu (Gerard Jugnot), an unsuccessful composer, is grateful to start a new job as a teacher for the school’s 60 predominantly adolescent pupils. Plump, bald, middle-aged and unhandsome, Mathieu is by nature warm and kindly and therefore quickly appalled by his new environment.

The principal, M. Rachin (Francois Berleand), is a self-serving tyrant whose slogan is “action-reaction,” which simply means swift, harsh discipline for any boy who gets out of line. Rachin believes in punishing an entire class when an individual culprit is hard to identify. Fond de l’Etang has slid into a vicious circle: The more severe and inclusive the punishment, the greater the rebellion. By and large, the boys are no more than mischief-makers coping with their bleak existence.

Barratier and his colleagues have wisely taken the time to establish what life is like at Fond de l’Etang and Mathieu’s efforts to bring a little humanity into the boys’ lives. Consequently it’s not until just over a half-hour into this 97-minute film that Mathieu hits upon the idea of forming a choir to bring some sunshine into the boys’ lives and also, hopefully, to improve their behavior and their grades. Mathieu finds his idea a hard sell, but he persists, with one youth, Pierre (Jean-Baptiste Maunier), revealing an especially strong affinity for music. Pierre has a lovely single mother, Violette (Marie Bunel), a waitress, who has a deep concern for her son’s well-being, which she shares with Mathieu.

Loosely adapted from the 1947 film “A Cage of Nightingales,” “The Chorus” has a strong, well-told story in which the activities of the choir form the background. (The choir heard intermittently throughout the film is Les Petits Chanteurs de Saint-Marc.) Barratier plays against the potential sentimentality of his material with enough humor and tough-mindedness to achieve a note of bittersweetness that seems just right. Warm, intimate and perceptive, “The Chorus” succeeds completely, with Jugnot its mainstay in a winning portrayal of a seemingly ordinary man of much resilience and considerable inner resources.

“The Chorus” represents the collaboration of two internationally renowned producers, Arthur Cohn and Jacques Perrin, plus Nicolas Mauvernay, a producer for Perrin’s production company, Galatee Films. A well-established actor before he became a producer, Perrin plays the mature Pierre in the prologue and epilogue of “The Chorus.”

*

‘The Chorus’

MPAA rating: PG-13 for some language/sexual references

Times guidelines: Suitable for older children

Gerard Jugnot...Clement Mathieu

Francois Berleand...Rachin

Jean-Baptiste Maunier...Pierre Morhange

Marie Bunel...Violette Morhange

Maxence Perrin...Pepinot

A Miramax presentation of a Franco-Swiss co-production: Galatee Films, Pathe Renn production, France 2 Cinema and Novo Arturo Films, Vega Film AG. Director Christophe Barratier. Producers Jacques Perrin, Arthur Cohn, Nicolas Mauvernay. Screenplay by Barratier; adaptation and dialogue by Barratier and Philippe Lopes Curval. Based on the screenplay of “A Cage of Nightingales” by Georges Chaperot, Rene Wheeler, Noel Noel. Cinematographers Carlo Varini, Dominique Gentil. Editor Yves Deschamps. In French with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes.

Through next Thursday at the Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869.