The nightingale cage
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The nightingale cage |
| Original title | La Cage aux rossignols |
 | |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1945 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jean Dréville |
| script |
René Wheeler Noël-Noël Original Story : Georges Chaperot |
| production |
Charles-Félix Tavano Gaumont production company |
| music | René Chloërec |
| camera | Marcel Weiss |
| cut | Jacques Grassi |
| occupation | |
| |
The nightingale cage (original title La Cage aux rossignols ) is a French feature film from 1945 directed by Jean Dréville . It tells the story of a young teacher who meets the orphans at an authoritarian boarding school with love and understanding and who can also win their trust with the help of music. The script by René Wheeler and Noël-Noël is based on the original story by Georges Chaperot .
In 2004 Christophe Barratier also filmed the story and gave it the title The Children of Monsieur Mathieu .
action
The writer Clément Mathieu remembers the time when nobody wanted to publish his novel “The Nightingale King”. Together with his friend Raymond, he had managed to find a way at the end of which the story of his life was published. At the time, it cost his loyal friend his position at the newspaper that he launched Mathieu's novel through a deliberate mix-up in the newspaper. The novel itself was a sensational hit with readers and was a great success. The story begins with Mathieu being transferred as a young teacher to a boarding school for orphan boys, where the children are treated hard and relentless rigor is the maxim. Mathieu has a different idea of the job of an educator and treats the boys with understanding and kindness. Gradually he succeeds in gaining the trust of the suspicious children, with music playing an essential role. Mathieu has recognized the potential of some particularly gifted boys and is founding a choir that increases the boys' self-esteem and is soon very successful. When Mathieu meets Martine through one of his students, he falls in love with her and the young woman returns his love.
But then something happens that gives his life a different direction. When Mathieu goes on a trip with the children entrusted to him, a fire breaks out in the boarding school and destroys it. Although it is a happy coincidence that Mathieu was out with the boys, as none of the children is harmed, this excursion means that it can be proven to Mathieu that he did something with the children without presenting a permit. Since his unconventional methods are a thorn in the side of some of the authoritarian teachers anyway, this means that Mathieu has to leave the institution and thus the children and his choir. Out of this desperation, with Martine's help, he finds the strength to process what he has experienced in his work “The Nightingale Cage”.
And when he and Martine get married, his former pupils sing in church, which is a very special gift for Mathieu.
background
The film premiered in France on September 6, 1945. It started in Germany in 1947 and in Austria on March 21, 1947. In the USA it premiered on April 2, 1947 in New York under the title A Cage of Nightingales .
The story told here is based on notes made by the team at Ker Goat, where they worked, to determine the impact choral singing and innovative teaching methods can have on the development of behavioral children. Jean Dréville's film The Nightingale King forms the basis for Christophe Barratier's film, The Children of Monsieur Mathieu , which has won several awards . When asked why he had chosen Dréville's 1945 model for his first feature film, Barratier said in an interview that he had seen this film on television at the age of seven or eight and was "deeply moved" by it . He said that even if the film has been largely forgotten nowadays, “its charm has survived.” And since this film was not overwhelmed with “hymns of praise” in French cinema at the time, he dared to adapt it. He also emphasized that the “most vivid memories that shaped him were the emotions” that were “triggered by the voices of the children”.
In “The Golden Age of French Cinema” Julien Morvan points out the great similarity between The Nightingale Cage and Le Pion ( A Pauker zum Verhaben , 1978, director: Christian Gion ), as plagiarism or homage. Because in Le Pion, too, the young substitute teacher Bertrand ( Henri Guybet ) offends the school management with his understanding and too lax educational methods. He is also writing a novel about his work as "Pion" (The Substitute Teacher) and is encouraged by Dominique ( Claude Jade ), the young mother of Michel's half-orphan, to write this novel. In the end he wins the Prix Goncourt with the novel and marries Dominique in the presence of all his students.
Reviews
The lexicon of international films found that the story of the film was "vividly told in the form of a biography, sometimes amusing and with serious concerns".
At Spiegel Online you can read (taken from Spiegel 5/1947 ) that it could be a “reading book story ”, but it is not. Psychologically everything is right. It is also not a social charge. It is just that there is such a thing and continues [...]: “By the way, a small cinematic masterpiece was created here. Quite unobtrusively, without posturing, simply beautiful. "
Awards
At the Oscar ceremony in 1948 was Georges Chaperot and René Wheeler in the category "Best Original story" for an Oscar nomination, but had to Valentine Davies admit defeat, the Oscar for his Christmas movie The Miracle of Manhattan ( Miracle on 34th Street ) received.
Web links
- A Cage of Nightingales in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ The children of Monsieur Mathieu at Means Movie Filmmagazin. Retrieved February 20, 2013.
- ↑ Le Pion (de Christian Gion, 1978) see lagedorducinemafrancais.blogspot.com (French)
- ↑ The Nightingale Cage in the Lexicon of International Films . Retrieved February 20, 2013.
- ↑ Nightingales sing for weddings at Spiegel Online.de. Der Spiegel 5/1947. Retrieved February 20, 2013.