World-renowned conductor Pierre Morhange hurriedly returns to his homeland France when he learns that his mother passed away during a New York performance. After his mother’s funeral service, he is visited by a man named Pépinot. The movie goes back 50 years after it is revealed that Pépinot went to the same school as Pierre, and they were taught by their teacher Clément Mathieu.
In 1949, after World War II, Clément Mathieu becomes the dormitory dean at a boarding school called Fond de l’Étang (Bottom of the Pond), where war orphans and problem children are sent. Under the direction of the principal to use severe corporal punishment to discipline the children, harsh punishment is repeatedly administered for those children that resist the teachers, and children are not encouraged to cultivate their future goals and dreams. Mathieu was a musician, bonds with the children through choir, and is able to teach the children discipline as well as the joy of music. Pierre is seen as a problem child, but Mathieu notices that the boy has a miraculous “singing voice of an angel” and tries to develop his talent.
The principal has no love for the students at all, and he is a man who aimed for fame and awards by managing an orphanage. When it is discovered that a large quantity of money is missing from the safe at the school, the worst juvenile delinquent Mondain is thought to have stolen it; after an interrogation that is near torture, Mondain does not admit to the crime, so is expelled from the school. Later, Mondain sets the boarding school on fire for the sake of revenge, but nobody dies because Mathieu happened to have taken all the students on a school trip during that time. However, the principal dismisses Mathieu, saying it is a violation of school regulations to take students any place off the premises, and doesn’t allow him to say goodbye to the students.
Because of this, Mathieu leaves the boarding school alone, and the students had no way of knowing what happened to him after this. At the end of the movie, it is revealed why Pépinot knows about Mathieu’s life after he left. The ending scene is very poignant.
Some may think that juvenile delinquents cannot be easily rehabilitated with the power of music, but the children in this movie are not evil boys with twisted minds. The children in this boarding school are mostly orphans who lost their parents in the war, or children of mothers who have to work all day long after their husband died in the war. The children here may have stolen bread from a shop in order to survive, but fundamentally, these children are just lonely and aren’t taught any direction in life. They conduct mischief, but it is because, as a result of having no parents, they aren’t taught what terrible outcomes one’s thoughtless mischief could bring. After mischief, they receive cruel corporal punishment from the principal; they gradually close their hearts and their behavior becomes worse and worse. Mondain did not steal the large amount of money from the safe. The boy who did steal the money just wanted to buy a toy blimp, but he just puts this money into his secret stash and does not use any of it.
In addition, when the boys met Mathieu, they were of the age before their voices have changed. It was within that short miraculous period of still having boy soprano voices like angels that the boys were taught the delight of singing. Since the boys were still young, they were searching for paternal affection and their rebelling was not very serious, so they responded well to Mathieu’s affection.
When Pierre’s talent was discovered, he continued on to a music academy with a prestigious scholarship, and became a world-famous conductor. He had forgotten about Mathieu and the boarding school of the remote past, but when Pépinot shows him a class photograph, he recollects fondly. When we look at Pierre’s life, we realize how important it is to meet a good teacher, especially in those younger days when growing up. Mathieu did not give Pierre preferential treatment in the relatively short time that he worked with Pierre. However, if Pierre had not met Mathieu, Pierre would not have become a world-famous musician, and in a worse case, he could’ve ended up in prison. It is rare to meet your elementary teacher again after becoming an adult. When you are busy raising children or pursuing a career, you may completely forget your elementary teacher, but when your parents die and you start to realize that life is not infinite, it would not be uncommon for you to think about a teacher from long ago, and, while you may have forgotten their name, you may fondly remember their face and their kindness.
This movie overtook the historical hit Amélie, and it became the number one biggest hit in the history of French movies; it is said that 1 in 7 French people have watched this movie. Jacques Perrin—an international star (and handsome actor) from France—produced this movie, while his nephew Christophe Barratier directed it, and Perrin’s third son, Maxence Perrin, performed as the lovely child Pépinot. Jacques Perrin played the elderly Pierre. Jacques Perrin produced and acted in the timeless masterpiece Z, and received an Academy Award for this. 
Although it is difficult to succeed as an actor, Jacques Perrin has both succeeded as an actor and produced movies like Z and The Chorus that will remain in history. He must have been born under an exceptionally lucky star.