The Marching Band

A French film about two brothers meeting through music. Thibaut is a conductor working internationally. He is diagnosed with leukaemia and needs a marrow transplant. In the course of family screening he learns he was adopted, and discovers he has a brother. Jimmy lives in a town in the north, works in a school canteen and plays trombone in the town's marching band. Both have talent for music, but one grew up in concert halls and the other in an industrial town. What the film is interested in is not the illness but how two people born with the same gift ended up in such different places. Class difference sits at the centre of the story and the film does not close it with an emotional reunion. It was shown at Cannes and became an unexpected commercial success in France, passing two and a half million admissions. It was nominated for a large number of Césars. Benjamin Lavernhe plays Thibaut and Pierre Lottin plays Jimmy. Emmanuel Courcol directed. A warm and well-acted film for anyone who likes French comedy drama and stories built on music. For a viewer expecting hard class criticism, the narrative moves inside mainstream conventions and some resolutions come easily.