'The Marching Band' Review: French Film Opens in U.S
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- Emmanuel Courcol directed "The Marching Band," which premiered at Cannes more than two years ago and opens theatrically in the U.S. this week through Greenwich Entertainment.
- Benjamin Lavernhe (credited as "de la Comédie-Française") plays Thibaut, a Paris classical conductor who, upon needing a bone marrow transplant, learns he was adopted and traces a biological brother in working-class northern France.
- Pierre Lottin plays that brother Jimmy, a cook and trombonist; the review calls the leukemia storyline "essentially a MacGuffin" that disappears for stretches so the film can develop the brothers' bond and a gentle social critique of unequal life chances.
- The film closely mirrors the 1996 British comedy "Brassed Off," depicting a brass ensemble as a lifeline for a community facing poverty and unemployment, with a "pre-ordained" barn-burning finale the review flags in advance.
- Editor Guerric Catala and costume designer Christel Birot anchor the technical package — the review singles out double denim and felted overshirts that sketch class through dress — while the soundtrack pairs Lee Morgan's "I Remember Clifford" with Dalida, Verdi's "Aida" overture, and Ravel's "Boléro."
- Despite lapsing into formula in its final stretches — montages, an artificial falling-out, dips into saccharine territory — the film earned strong domestic box-office receipts in France, which the review cites as proof the approach pays.
Why it matters: More than two years after its Cannes premiere, the film's U.S. theatrical release via Greenwich Entertainment confirms distributor confidence in a French-language crowd-pleaser that earned strong French box-office returns; American audiences get a class-conscious buddy drama built on a familiar "Brassed Off"-style framework, though the review warns the formulaic late-film contrivances undercut the social-class critique the movie otherwise handles with precision.
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