The Choral

[Fishfungus]

Anyone else think that this looks like it could be a good film? Definitely showing my age here but looks just up my street 😄 Shame it’s not out until November!

It was ok. Very thought provoking, especially today. Wanted to love it, but didn’t. I can’t image in 1916 they would have got really injured, probably shell shocked soldiers to re enact the battlefield as they do in the performance. But RF was excellent.

Going at the weekend.

Loved it ♥️

No. You've seen a trailer with one black character? She's from a black family and the mother is played very "black".

I thought it was a very enjoyable film and the friend I went with who has been involved in choirs all his life loved it.

Yes, I found that bit odd too.

I think my Grandad was injured by about 1916. He was judged too injured to go back to the front but not bad enough to be out of the army (6 month + convalescence) spent the rest of the war as mp in Portsmouth.

A moving and powerful film spoilt by the blind casting of Amara Okereke. If a lead member of the choir is black, then surely the character should be made appropriate for the time. She would have undoubtedly faced racism, and it is unlikely that so many of the young men would have found her attractive. The film would have been much more effective if it had dealt with the racism of the time. Instead the character is written as a white woman and then given a black face! Ridiculous.

I’m in only because i love The Dream of Gerontius and Simon Russell Beale.

@Hulands That was what was making me a bit wary of seeing the film, as much as I love Alan Bennett and Ralph Fiennes, but after reading the post from @Sofaflop about this character I assumed racism would be addressed, but clearly not.

I also don’t think that she’d have gone anywhere near a pub! I also found the sexual stuff completely unnecessary to the story.

I'm going tonight, having seen the trailer a couple of times.

But Alan Bennett wrote the screenplay — it’s not adapted from a pre-existing work. So, if there are sex scenes, they’re because and as he wrote them, and because they’re a part of the story he wanted to tell.

Looks good. My DB gave my M a cinema voucher for her birthday (goodness knows why - she's very challenging to entertain) and this looks like the only viable option at the moment. I like the trailer. I did want to see Dragonfly with Brenda Blethyn - but I've just found out what the twist is at the end of that and it's very definitely not for me. The Choral it is. Ralph Fiennes is generally always good and the plot looks engaging.

She was Salvation Army she would have been in the pub all the time collecting money. Although hanging out there was unlikely but her Mother obviously saw being in the Salvation Army as a phase.
And according to my Mum the racism only really got bad when there were lots of immigrants - I think the Irish (and probably Lancastrians) would have had it worse.

I want to see this as I love Roger Allam … if you’ve seen it is he any good in it?

He’s absolutely amazing in it imho.

@gaggiavelasca thanks!

This post may contain SPOILERS

It made me feel sick. It seemed to be all about men's feelings of entitlement towards women's bodies, but then the tone was trying to be wholesome?!

All through the film women were saying no to men's sexual advances and the men wouldn't listen. I accept these attitudes were even more prevalent then but the filmmakers really seemed to be on the men's side!

Thank you @A8888, you have articulated what I was trying to say.

The women’s characters didn’t seem well developed, more like a cipher for the males. I think it’s highly improbable that a prostitute would practice openly in that era and then join the village choir.

DH and I really enjoyed it, BUT we are Bennett fans. It was well cast (Ralph F and Roger A are especially good).

It probably helped that we’d been in Saltaire (where most is filmed) a fortnight before!

The pace is slow and thoughtful, with some dark humour thrown in.

I got the impression that it was more because they were teenage lads, who knew they were probably going to die. And wanted that experience before they went to war.

The female characters weren’t well developed, no, but that was the point, it was about the men and boys and their experience of wartime. not that of the women although we see some glimpses of their pain and emotions.

It was well acted, beautifully shot (I love Saltaire too and what a stunning location it is) and very poignant, no huge emotional plotlines or cliffhangers, just quiet agonies and emotional moments with a tiny bit of humour in places. The sexual scenes were all just part of the emotional experiences of the young men, the prostitution didn’t seem out of place for me, in desperate times unlikely things happen.

I’ve just been to see it and I was a bit disappointed to be honest. Perhaps I wasn’t in the right mood. Lots of elements of it appealed and I liked the cast and it looked beautiful but somehow it fell flat. Some storylines never really developed - the homosexuality for example. It’s never really explored beyond the superficial. The women are being coerced left right and centre and I’m not sure what tone Alan Bennett was going for with that.

Went this evening and was quite disappointed to be honest. Some good performances but not a lot for the cast to get their teeth into. I found it all a bit clunky and the humour rather crass and predictable. The lighthearted parts of the script overshadowed the more poignant elements of the story, which I think could have had a much bigger impact. The staging of the final performance was not at all realistic or believable (not to mention the professional standard of singing by the soloists). Even Ralph Fiennes couldn’t save it. I wish I’d waited to watch it on TV to be honest.

A real mixed bag of reviews it seems. I’m still keen to watch it but won’t be going to the cinema but will wait for it to come to one of the streaming platforms - then I won’t feel like I wasted my money if it disappoints!