A Cage of Nightingales
A Cage of Nightingales is a 1945 French film directed by Jean Dréville. It was the second most popular movie at the French box office that year and gained a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Story.
Its plot is directly inspired by that of an actual educational centre, called Ker Goat, where Jacques Dietz, Roger Riffier and their teams worked to help children in difficulty through choral singing and innovative teaching methods. The film later served as an inspiration for the film The Chorus, starring the French actor Gérard Jugnot and directed by Christophe Barratier.
Synopsis
Clement Mathieu seeks to publish his novel without success. With the help of a friend who is a journalist, his story about the 'Cage of Nightingales' is slipped surreptitiously into a newspaper...In France, in the 1930s, a supervisor at a rehabilitation house awakens difficult teens' inner musical tendencies by forming a choir, despite the director's skepticism. Later, this experience is reported in a novel in a major newspaper.
Cast
- Noël-Noël as Clément Mathieu
- Micheline Francey as Micheline
- Georges Biscot as Raymond
- René Génin as Father Maxence
- René Blancard as Monsieur Rachin
- as Micheline's mother
- Marcelle Praince as the President
- Marthe Mellot as Marie
- Georges Paulais as Monsieur Langlois
- André Nicolle as Monsieur de la Frade
- as Monsieur de Mézères
- Jean Morel as the director
- Roger Vincent as the Academician
- Michel François as Lequerec
- as Laugier
- Choir - Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois