IF you put the names Alan Bennett, Nick Hytner, Ralph Fiennes, Roger Album. Simon Russell-Beale … and Elgar … together and give them a good shake, you would probably come up with The Choral, a quintessential English film, with charm, music, love lost and found and a soul-stirring musical backdrop.

Add in the First World War and the terrible toll in took on the young men of this (and so many European) countries, and you have the recipe for a film that would be almost tailor-made for Moviola audiences.

No surprise then, that it is the top choice for March for the rural cinema network in this area.

Alan Bennett actually wrote the screenplay – or its outline – during the pandemic, and it hit cinema screens late last year. It isn’t really a big-screen, multiplex cinema sort of film – it’s one to watch in a more intimate setting and if it doesn’t make you cry, you either don’t enjoy an Alan Bennett script or you hate Elgar. I actually don’t love The Dream of Gerontius, but after watching The Choral, I know I will always see and hear it differently.

The story, briefly, is of the Ramsden Choral Society – “the Choral” as it is known in the little Yorkshire town. The choirmaster has joined the army, and the committee take the not altogether popular decision to appoint an esteemed musician, Dr Henry Guthrie (Fiennes). The problem is that Guthrie has been working in Germany for many years and (although this is not widely known by the local people) is homosexual.

The original plan was to perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion, but this is one German step too far for the community, so Guthrie proposes Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, which is reluctantly accepted (the reluctance due to the composer being a Roman Catholic).

Elgar, who makes a brief visit to Ramsden to inspect the choral society, is played with typically scene-stealing bravado by Simon Russell-Beale.

The Choral is being screened at Churchinford, Codford St Peter (Woolstore Theatre), Bransgore, Pewsey (Bouverie Hall), Highcliffe (community centre), Chard (Guildhall), Odcombe, Harnham, Edington (Somerset), Royal Wootton Bassett (RWB Academy), Mere (Lecture Hall), West Camel (Davis Hall), Winterslow and Hythe.

The other much-requested April film is Nuremberg, on at Fawley (Jubilee Hall), Nether Wallop, Trent, Watchet (community cinema), Hawkchurch, Ditcheat (Jubilee Hall), Netherbury, Bishopstone (near Salisbury) and Halstock.

Written, co-produced, and directed by James Vanderbilt, the film is based on the 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai. It follows US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) seeking to carry out an assignment to investigate the personalities and monitor the mental status of Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) and other high-ranking Nazis in preparation for and during the Nuremberg trials.

The month’s other films are:
The Roses at Cheddon & West Monkton;
The Ballad of Wallis Island at Highcliffe (Community Centre);
I Swear at Kingsbury Episcopi, South Petherton (David Hall), Shrewton, Chilthorne Domer and Martock;
Four Mothers at East Knoyle;
The Golden Spurtle at Watchet (community cinema);
Ocean at South Petherton (David Hall);
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning at Charlton Marshall;
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere at Horton (near Ilminster) and Castle Cary (Caryford Hall;
and The Return at Winsford.