As far as documentaries go, "Les metamorphoses du choeur (The Metamorphosis of the Choir)" is a lesson in understatement. In fact, director Marie-Claude Treilhou seems motivated by a simple, unassuming love of music. Hers is a low-temperature fascination. Along with cinematographer Pierre Stoeber, she takes the camera to amateur choir practices and films the lessons, the rehearsals and the stage performance, quietly reveling in the no-nonsense, unpretentious telling of it all.
The cast consists of choir master/instructor Claire Marchand, choir members from the Maurice Ravel Institute of Music in Paris, and some teachers. The setting is the Institute building. The frames show people (adults and school children) in various stages of practice -- limbering up their mouth muscles or launching into song. On occasion, there are shots of a teacher giving individual advice to one or the other of the students. There is nothing else.
What surfaces is the joy of singing in unison, and the gradual acquiring of musical skills that match the subtle, gradual metamorphoses of mind and body. Trite as it seems, singing really does help perk up the senses and create a feeling of well-being. Accordingly, weekly choir practice is a source of true happiness to many of the adults in the film, and for the children it opens a window to a world of music and camaraderie that had previously been unknown. Marchand's method is to have the kids exercise before practice, doing stretches or playing musical chairs to relax and get warmed up. Initially a little shy or bored, the children learn to move better, read music and sing in the space of a few weeks, and the way their expressions open up or become immersed in concentration is inspiring.