Conducting ëThe Chorusí French Director Barratier Tells How Music Changed His Life by Ky N. Nguyen French director Christophe Barratier makes his auspicious feature debut with "The Chorus (Les Choristes)." Relaxed and gregarious, Barratier told The Washington Diplomat how the story is close to his heart. "Unfortunately, my parents got divorced when I was very young, so I was sent to a boarding school. I met music thanks to a teacher. At the beginning, I was not so attracted, but he thought that I had a very good voice. He organized a boysí choir, and I was a soloist of the boys choir," the director recalled. "So this story is really autobiographical. The little kid who is waiting for Father all Saturday Ö it is me. He was the sole victim of a racket, when you have an older boy who asks you for money. "The other young character Pierre Morhange is me because I was a good singer. Also, I had a very difficult relationship with my mother because I felt that she was guilty to leave me in this boarding school. So when she was visiting me, I was a little bit angry. At the end of the movie, my mother took me back with her." Barratier said Clement Mathieu, the music teacher por trayed in the film, was also based on real-life inspirations. "Musicómuch more than musicóchanged my life. Mathieu is a bit like the teacher I knew. Itís not only musical sense he give me but much more: a life lesson." At 10, Barratier left the boarding school to live with his mother, an actress in Paris. In a conservatory, he studied classical guitar and performed professionally. "I was so attracted by the movies that at 25, I decided to come back Ö maybe to my genetic family. I asked [my uncle Jacques Perrin, a producer and actor] to give me a hand and to work with him in his production company." Perrin directed the commercially and critically successful documentary "Winged Migration, which Barratier helped to produce. "For ëWinged Migration,í I directed a lot of sequences. I was also very much involved with Jacques about financing these movies, going to the studios to convince people. But really, my thing was to direct fiction films. Really, it was my obsession. I spent a lot of time with production of ëWinged Migration.í Otherwise, I would have directed sooner than I did." The old-fashioned subject matter of "The Chorus" had many doubters. "We are reaching 9 million admissions, which is incredible. Itís in the top 20 box office of all time in France. And so I remember after the first million of spectators, people say, ëAh, itís because GÈrard Jugnot is a very popular actor.í After 2 million, they say, ëAh, itís because there are some kids. After 3 million, they say, ëMaybe because the music is very beautiful.í After 4 million: ëMaybe, itís because the story is optimistic.í "And I came back: ëMaybe, why not itís a good movie?í" The filmís phenomenal success has revitalized choral music in France and elsewhere, elevating the real-life choirís profile. "New Yearís Eve, they gave a concert in Paris in a big hall. Five thousand people were there, shouting to see Jean-Baptiste Maunieróthe young singer [in the film]ólike he was a rock star. Itís incredible. I was even a little bit afraid of this madness." Getting Real British writer-director Michael Radford ("Il Postino") and American actress Lynn Collins, a rising star, met with The Washington Diplomat to discuss the filming of William Shakespeareís "The Merchant of Venice." The play has been considered so difficult to adapt that a major motion picture version has not been made in English since the silent era. "Cinema demands a certain speed," Radford said. "You get there faster not because the words are not beautiful in the cinema but because you see so much closer what people are feeling. They donít have to explain it to you. I just tried really to set it in as real a context as I possibly could, to make everyone feel as real as possible." Casting Al Pacino as Shylock had added benefits beyond Pacinoís bravura performance. Pacinoís god-like reputation in Italy enabled the production to shoot in authentic Venetian locations not normally accessible to movie crews. Despite Veniceís beauty, Radford recalled, "I tried to make it smelly and dirty. I donít like people appearing in neat, pristine costumes. People didnít wash a lot in those days, and the place was smelly and dirty. I tried to make the weather count. I tried to make the fact people traveled by water all the time count." Elements of Shakespeareís original play also had to be reworked for the film. "I began to realize that Shakespeare tends to come into his plays in the middle of the action, and he doesnít have any back story. But itís related by the characters as they appear on the stage, and thatís no good for a movie. So I decided to enter this one before the play started, without writing any Shakespeare lines. "I constructed an introduction to the movie," Radford continued, "so you know exactly where you are, you know what the quarrels between people were and are, and you know the relationships between people. I think that was essential to the success or failure of this movie." His revisionsóincluding ample cuts clarifying the plotóappealed to Collins, who plays Portia. She noted, "I hated the play. I fell in love with Michaelís script." Radford added, "I donít like people declaiming. I said, ëIíd like you to deliver your lines as if itís natural speech.í Forget iambic pentameter." "It became real people talking," Collins said. "And I think thatís been surprising to all of us in this film, how easy it is to do that. All of a sudden, it doesnít sound like youíre speaking verse. Thatís been magical." Radford pointed out, "I think Lynn Collins is just the best Shakespearean actress of her generation. She is just extraordinary. She came in for a small role. And thatís where casting was importantówhen you see somebody come in and you realize they have an immense ability." The director didnít like any of the British actresses that he saw. Collins was a replacement for Australian Cate Blanchett, who bowed out due to pregnancy. Although a relative unknown, Texas-born Collins actually had more experience with Shakespeare than Radford. An award-winning student at Julliard, sheíd performed Shakespeare extensively, including a production with Sir Peter Hall. Growing up in multicultural Singapore, where she was "a little white girl" raised by a Muslim nanny, Collins found the homogeneous atmosphere of a Houston suburb to be stifling when she returned to Texas at age 10. "I experienced culture shock. There were only white people around me. I escaped as soon as I could." Her experience with cultural displacement attracted her to the story. Collins said, "What I want people to take away from this is itís about human forgiveness and how we rise above the norm for us, the prejudice and the differences. Itís not Christian versus Jew, itís human and personal." Radford added, "The film is no more anti-Semitic than ëSchindlerís List.í It simply portrays existing attitudes at the time. Itís about tolerance in a multicultural society. Itís modern story that can be applied to todayís situation in Iraq." Ky N. Nguyen is the film reviewer for The Washington Diplomat.