The Choral - Opening Night Premiere Russell Hobbs British Film Festival 2025
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Date Reviewed: 05/11/2025
The Russell Hobbs British International Film Festival lit up St Kilda’s iconic Astor Theatre on Wednesday 05 November for the opening night film “The Choral”.
Guests arrived at an exquisitely British reception of Glendronach cocktails, British-inspired bites, and indulgent apple crumble while being entertained by a live chorus. A nice touch in this elegant old theatre.
Director Nicholas Hytner, writer Alan Bennett, and Ralph Fiennes have created a film that’s measured, moving, and beautifully restrained.
Set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Ramsden in 1916, The Choral opens in a country frayed by war and fear. Conscription has begun, and even the stalwart Ramsden Choral Society — the community’s beating heart — is starting to fall apart.
The young men are heading to the front, their chorus master among them. The comforting lie that they’ll be “home by Christmas” still drifts from pulpits and pint glasses alike. But the show, as ever, must go on.
Enter Dr Guthrie (Fiennes), once a celebrated conductor, now quietly working in a hotel after being cast aside for his time in Germany. He’s a man of intellect and precision — quoting Goethe one moment, restoring musical order the next — and beneath that sharpness, there’s something bruised and deeply human.
His arrival is exactly what Ramsden needs, albeit the frosty reception he initially receives. Yet, soon delivers lines that embrace and empower with their depth and consideration.
Hytner — the BAFTA, Olivier, and Tony Award-winning director behind "The madness of King George & The History Boys""
The cast is a joy — a mix of old hands and fresh faces, all tuned perfectly to the film’s balance of humour and heartache. Actors are given space to breathe; a look, a pause, or a flicker of feeling often says more than any line could, and in this respect The Choral moves with real grace.
What begins as gentle comedy deepens into something quietly profound. There’s laughter, but it sits alongside sorrow.
George Fenton’s score — elegant and wistful, ties it all together. The music becomes both a refuge and a reminder of what’s at stake.
Sadly, the film’s final performance feels a touch too modest — though perhaps that’s exactly the point, restraint over spectacle.
The Choral is a crowd-pleaser, but not in the obvious way. Beneath its warmth lies a sharper reflection — on art, duty, and the quiet courage it takes to hold things together, especially for those injured characters in this story. And in every story of war.
The closing line, spoken on a railway platform, lands with heartbreaking simplicity: a thought from another time yet so painfully present.
Reviewed by Vivien Lynch