MovieChat Forums > Boychoir (2015) Discussion > I loved it. I thought it was an absolute...

I loved it. I thought it was an absolutely beautiful film

posted 9 years ago by joey-tribbiani
3 replies | jump to latest

I think I need to talk about the technical aspects of the film first because there are a number of people targeting the film.

For once I noticed a reviewer say what was special about hitting high D. The reviewer stated there is nothing special about it, it's just a note. Basically the reviewer didn't realise that hitting high D was important towards singing Messiah in the version they wanted to sing it, without changes and in their way.

I mention this because I find the excuses made about the film being bad are pretty much juvenile and bordering or completely passing inexperience.

Technically, great acting, nice straight dialogue, somewhat questionable plot that it did make you wonder who did what. Cinematography and set design in an old school and the churches as well as the drives and sound - it was great which made the film nice to watch.

So you're left with the story which showed someone coming from a broken background beign given a chance at something that won't last forever, basically to help them out.

That just makes it a very nice film to watch. You do fall for the characters and hope something nice will come out of it and it does. Why is that a bad thing?

Oddly, that being a bad thing is why people dislike it. In that case, stop watching films.

I loved it. Beautiful.

[–] Cantoris-2 9 years ago

It is a beautiful film, despite its flaws.

But one reviewer called the constant reiteration of the high D in the descant to the Hallelujah Chorus "God-awful", and I have to agree. It is unworthy of the musical excellence of the rest of the film.

Traditional English repertoire expects choristers routinely to sing high A. The Allegri Miserere, as edited or paraphrased in the twentieth century, calls for a soloist reaching high C, and this has been generally regarded as a ne plus ultra. Whether the high C is authentic or not, the effect of this composition as sung by the Sistine Chapel Choir was so renowned that they jealously guarded it as their exclusive property. The scores were kept under lock and key, and copying them was criminalized. Mozart, while yet only a boy, broke the code (and the taboo) by writing the music down from memory after hearing it.

So high D would be an extraordinary achievement, although the early twentieth-century choirmaster William Finn wrote in his book that "the boy's voice has no top" and that he would often have a particulary good treble voice in his choir sing an octave higher than the rest of the section, lending an especially etherial sheen to the choir's sound.

[–] joey-tribbiani 8 years ago

I just felt it wasn't an appropriate way to dis the whole film. It was kind of significant and they built a sub-plot around it but overall, it didn't take away from the charm of the film.

If this got more publicity it would have been more liked. I only know of it because I regularly rent films.

[–] rubirub 7 years ago

It wasn't a beautiful film. It was like a TV movie to spend a sunday evening. Nothing more.