Évènements
“En Fanfare”: a hailed movie about amateur orchestras
Three years after "A Triumph", Emmanuel Courcol presents his new film "En fanfare" in official selection at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. A great opportunity to pay tribute to amateur musicians who actively contribute to the development of instrumental practice across all territories.
Dialogue between a renowned conductor and a Municipal Band
In this third feature film (after Cessez-le-feu in 2016 and Un triomphe in 2021), Emmanuel Courcol continues to explore the themes of social determinism and resilience, while highlighting the unifying power of music.
He first introduces us to Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe), an internationally renowned conductor. Suffering from leukemia requiring a bone marrow transplant, he discovers through a DNA test that he was adopted, but also that he has a biological brother, Jimmy (Pierre Lottin), a school canteen employee and trombonist in a brass band in northern France. Apparently everything separates them, except the love of music. Detecting his brother's exceptional musical abilities, Thibaut makes it his mission to repair the injustice of fate. Jimmy then begins to dream of another life…
The Municipal Miners' Band of Lallaing at the Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes festival rolled out its red carpet for members of The Municipal Miners' Band of Lallaing (North of France), who play their own roles in the film.
“The fact that the brass band is partly the real Lallaing brass band gives something very authentic” underlines actor Benjamin Lavernhe. “They are very rich personalities so it makes a gallery of supporting roles to which we immediately become attached. We saw it during the screening: people like the characters after five minutes, there is immediate empathy and that’s the talent of the cast.”
At the end of the screening, the musicians performed Emmenez-moi by Charles Aznavour to the applause of the audience, a unique scene in Cannes.
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I chose the North and at the same time I didn't want to make a regionalist film, it could have happened elsewhere. The characters are rooted in the realities of the North but resemble us all, they have the same issues, the same emotions. And I avoided anything that could be caricatures and clichés." - Emmanuel Courcol |
“I had discovered, during a very old project, the world of brass bands in Tourcoing, it had a big impact on me. I was very touched by all these people who came together to make music together without pretension and with a lot of human warmth. I chose the North of France because it is a land of brass and wind bands, it is where there is the greatest density of groups and amateur orchestras.
The film, full of simplicity and humanity, does not avoid social violence and the balance of power between the two worlds that it wishes to bring into dialogue, but it shows with optimism that music can be a link and that there is sometimes a collective path to beauty…
► The Lallaing Miners’ Band website
► Find out more about the film
