Movies: "Le cage aux rossignols" (The Cage of Nightengales), (France, 1945)


Figure 1.--This sccene the choristers in the choir room, notice the music on the balckboard. It shows how they dressed when not in their choir costumes.

The French movie la cage aux rossignols (The cage with the nightingales) used choristers from the French boys choir Les petits chanteurs a la croix de bois, the Little Singers of the Cross of Bois. The story line involves a young professor who is employed in a house for delinquent children. The scene here shows the choristers in an informal momment. It shows casual clothes commonly worn by French boys in during the mid-1940s. The choir has the uniform of blue sweater and blue short pants and white kneesocks, but in many scenes the boys also wear their own clothes.

Filmography

The French movie la cage aux rossignols (The cage with the nightingales) used choristers from the French boys choir Les petits chanteurs a la croix de bois, the Little Singers of the Cross of Bois. I do not have any information on the film at this time . The film was directed by Jean Dréville. The screen play was done by Georges Chaperot.

Cast

One HBC reader reports was especially impressed with Jean Dreville and Noël-Noël. The main characters include: Noël-Noël (Clément Mathieu) who is the conductor. In the film he teaches the boys how to sing in a choir. With the help of one boy, he meets Martine (Micheline Francey)--a girl that he hopes to marry. Others in the cast are Georges Biscot (Raymond), René Génin (Maxence), René Blancard (Rachin), Marguerite Ducouret (Mme. Martine), Marcelle Praince (The Chairwoman), Marthe Mellot (Old Marie), Georges Paulais (Mr. Langlois), André Nicolle (M. de la Frade), Richard Francoeur (M. de Mezeres), Jean Morel (I) (New Director), Roger Vincent (Academy Member), Michel François (I) (Lequerec ), and Roger Krebs (Laugier). The real star in this film, however is the choir itself--La Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois.


Figure 2.--Sweaters appear to be very commonly worn by French boys in the 1940s. A few also wear suit jackets.

La Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois

The famous French choir, the La Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois was used in the making of this film. Since the turn of the century, the approximately 100 Small Singers have followed a formal musical education at their chateau near Paris. Recruited from the general population, they are trained to a very high standard. The current director is Rodolphe Pierrepont. As well as sacred music, the choir performs popular French fare. La Manécanterie des Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois are according to a HBC contributor one of the ten best boy choirs of Europe and compare with the Wiener Sängerknaben or Tölzerknaben in Germany and the Escalonia de Montserrat.

Story Line

The story line involves a young professor who is employed in a house for delinquent children. He is a musician and decides to create a choral group to develop the children who are mistreated in the home. The pictures on this page are the choir mememberrs meeting to practice. The movie has a contemprary setting, the mid-1940s.

Clothing

The scene here shows the choristers in an informal momment. It shows clothes commonly worn by French boys in during the mid-1940s, especially clothes commonly worn at school. As the film was released in 1945, it in fact showcases contemporary boys' fashions at the time of release. A French reader confirms that the film very accurately depicts the clothes that French boys were wearing at the time. The boys are wearing as the typical instituit The almost universal dress at that school was the boys' own sweaters and shorts. A French reader reports, "Notice this film was shoot just at the end of World War II. Clothing at the time was very hard to come boy. Many boys had ro wear old clothes and hand-me-downs. Many of the boys in the film were dressed with the help of the Mané. The clothes that they wear seem to have 1930s styling. Generaly in the 1940s, for example, short pants were a bit shorter than the ones the boys are wearing in the film." Some of the fashions worn or not worn by the boys include the following.

Berets

None of the boys wear caps or berets, but it is inside so they would not normally have them on. Given that ir appears to be a little chilly, several of the boys probably did wear berets or caps.

Jackets

Several boys wear their suit jackets. I do not see any casua jackets. This seems to mean that they did not have a lot of casual clothes. The only jackets they had to wear were apparenty wear their suit jackets, often with sweaters.

Sweaters

Most of the boys are wearing seaters. There are a wide variety of styles and patterns. Presumably it is winter and a little chilly. Most appear to have crew necks, but one boy has a turtle neck. Most have long sleeves, but some or sleevless. They are a variety of solid colors.


Figure 3.--The PCCB choristers are seen here in a rehersal for the film.

Shirts

As sommany boys have on sweatersor buttoned up jackets it is difficult to see the shirts they are wearing. One boy wears what looks like a short-sleeved pull-over shirt or sweater. All the other boys wear long seeves.

Ties

None of the boys appear to be wearing ties.

Pants

Almost all the boys whose pants are vissible wear short pants. They appear to be heavy winter woolen shorts. Length vary. Some are knee length. Others boys wear shorts cut well above the knee. The choir uniform was dark blue shorts, but the boys in their own clirges seem to wear shorts that are grey or other lighter color.

Socks

Most of theboys wear kneesocks, mosly dark colors. One boy wears white kneesocks. A few boys wear their shorts with ankle socks, but this is not common. The choir costume is white kneesocks. Some boys may have worn white kneesocks as part of their regular clothes. We note in one photograph that a boy has pushed down his white kneesocks. This became a popular style among French boys.

Shoes

Only a few pairs of shoes can be seen, but they appear to be rather heavy boot-like shoes.


Figure 4.--This is another photograph of the PCCB choristers in the rehersals for the film.

Hair cuts

Most boys wear their hair at rather unifor length. There are no long or especially short hair styles.

Rehersals

A number of photographs exist of the PCCB choristers during the rehersals for the film. Many wear the choir costume of blue sweater and short pants worn with white kneesocks. Other wear their own clothes, many are dressed up in suits. These outfits are the boys' own clothes and thus a good view as to what French boys were wearing at this time.

French Choir Movies

Le cage aux rossignols is one of the few French films that we know of about a French choir, albeit a fictional one. We also know of few French films in which choirs are even depicted. We are unsure why so few French films have been made with or about boy choirs.






Christopher Wagner





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Created: June 14, 2000
Last updated: April 3, 2002