Christian Chaudet’s film of Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol started life as a 1999 studio sound recording of the piece conducted by James Conlon.  Chaudet became somewhat obsessed with the recording and decided to turn it into a film, recruiting the original singers as part of the project.  It’s an ambitious film which mixes live action, animation and a series of special effects to create something really rather weird and wonderful.  It frames the Hans Christian Anderson tale in a modern setting involving a mobile phone, a weird internet cafe and a reality talent show.  He throws in some Gilliamesque animation and a live nightingale for good measure.

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