The Marching Band
Release date: 2024-11-27
Votes: 284
Genres: Comedy, Drama
Diagnosed with leukemia, a successful orchestra conductor learns that he is adopted, and his younger brother is in a village marching band. The conductor decides to help them win a regional contest.
Reviews
CinemaSerf
“Thibaut” (Benjamin Lavernhe) is an accomplished conductor who is now based in the USA but who comes home to France now and again to perform. It’s during one such visit that he confides to his sister “Rose” (Mathilde Courcol-Rozés) that he needs a bone-marrow transplant. She readily agrees to help out but when she is found to be incompatible, that news opens quite a can of worms that results in him having to ask “Jimmy” (Pierre Lottin) - a brother he didn’t know he had and who lives in a quietly dying town where his workplace is earmarked for closure, to help out. Initially uninterested and disbelieving, the film now illustrates just how the two men come to terms with their past, their present and (hopefully) their future against a backdrop of resentment and privilege as they try to reconcile with the elements of “luck of the draw” that have governed their lives thus far. Fortunately, they have one thing in common. They both love music, and as it transpires that “Jimmy” plays trombone in his local mineworkers band we have a conduit for them to bond - or not! There are shades of “Brassed Off” (1996) as this offers us a social commentary on the decline of traditional rural industries that leave little by way of hope or opportunity in it’s wake; a little bit of romance and some seriously horrible uniforms too! Along the way, there is also some fine classical Mozart, some crooning from Charles Aznavour and some enjoyable band rehearsals with an eclectic collection of the townsfolk proving remarkably talented with instrument and voice alike - after a soupçon of guidance. No, there probably isn’t so much jeopardy about the denouement, though there is a twist - it’s really a story about family and one that’s presented without too much sentiment and a bit of enjoyably bloody-minded Gallic humour. I was never quite sure what an orchestral conductor actually did, standing there flailing his baton at a collection of perfectly proficient musicians, but this might just have helped explain a little - and that seating matters too!
Movie Recommendation
Not Without My Shrink2024-12-11A successful psychoanalyst's life is turned upside down by a very anxious and extremely clingy patient who starts dating his daughter.More...
A Missing Part2024-11-13Every day, Jay travels the length and breadth of Tokyo in his taxi, looking for his daughter Lily. In the 9 years since he has separated from his wife, he has never been able to get custody of his daughter. Having given up hope of ever seeing her again, he is about to move back to France when Lily hops in his cab. But she doesn't recognize him.More...
Belle and Sebastian: Next Generation2022-10-1910-year-old Sebastien reluctantly spends his vacation in the mountains with his grandmother and aunt. Helping them with the sheep is hardly an exciting prospect for a city boy like him - but that is without considering his encounter with Belle, a huge dog mistreated by her owner. Ready to do anything to fight injustice and to protect his new-found friend, Sebastien will spend the craziest summer of his life.More...
Fais pas ci, fais pas ça - On va marcher sur la Lune2024-12-05There is no descriptionMore...
Le Panache2024-11-20Colin, 14, enters a new school and he's freaking out: how do you get by when, like him, you're a stutterer? His meeting with Mr. Devarseau, a charismatic French teacher, will push him to face his fears and break out of his isolation. Now Colin has a group of friends and a project: to go on stage to play Cyrano in front of the whole school.More...
On aurait dû aller en Grèce2024-11-13There is no descriptionMore...
Loveable2024-09-19Maria finds herself at a crossroads when her husband suddenly announces that he wants to end their relationship. She must either let her whole world come crashing down, or come to terms with the life she has and find a way forward.More...
The 4th Wall2025-01-15Lebanon, 1982. To keep a promise made to an old friend, Georges, an idealistic theater director, travels to Beirut for a project as utopian as it is risky: to stage the play Antigone on the front line, in order to steal a moment of peace from the raging civil war. The characters will be played by actors from different political and religious camps. Lost in a city and a conflict he knows nothing about, Georges is guided by Marwan. As fighting resumes, everything is soon called into question, and Georges, who falls in love with Imane, has to face up to the reality of war.More...
The Strawberry Statement1970-08-28A college student joins a group of revolutionaries to meet girls but ends up committed to their goals.More...
Marmaille2024-12-04There is no descriptionMore...
Winter in Sokcho2025-01-08A young Korean girl's life takes an unexpected turn when a French artist visits her country, disrupting her routine.More...
Daydark - The Darkness of the Day2022-11-10The ruthless war between a diabolical serial killer and the father of one of his victims, a fight that will drag many innocent souls into violence.More...
Hello, Love, Again2024-11-13Five years on from when Joy said goodbye to Ethan and Hong Kong to pursue her dreams in Canada. After fighting for their love to conquer the time, distance and a global shutdown that kept them apart, Joy and Ethan meet again in Canada but realize that they have also changed a lot, individually.More...
Almost Legal2024-07-17Just out of their studies, Félix and Vincent are two young broken hands from the Atlantic coast who are struggling to find their place in the world of work... and in life in general. The two friends decide to clandestinely transform a small neighborhood grocery store into a nighttime business during the holidays. Helped by a team of specialists recruited for the occasion, they will keep the store running, until the real owner of the convenience store and the police start to smell something wrong...More...
Battle of the Bulbs2010-12-18Bob and Stu are former best friends who still hold a grudge from an argument they had when they were teenagers. Now, they hope to settle the score with a different kind of competition: who can out-bulb the other in their town’s annual Christmas decorating contest.More...
It Happens2024-11-27In a police station in the 1st arrondissement of Marseille, three investigators, two men and a woman, face the stories of rapes which are perpetrated daily in the Phocaean city. Every day, they receive victims of all ages, genders and social backgrounds. Every day, they bring their professionalism to the service of this colorful brigade, where drama rubs shoulders with humor, and darkness with hope.More...
I Am Martin Parr2024-10-17Since the 1970s‚ Martin Parr has fearlessly held out his unique photographic mirror and given us some of the most extraordinary and unique visual clichés of modern times. Sometimes serious‚ often absurd but always playful‚ his insightful and often acrid commentary on consumer society has always been a subject of controversy and discussion.More...
Presidente Por AcidenteNo data for this movieThere is no descriptionMore...
Il suffit d’écouter les femmes2025-01-14"Il suffit d'écouter les femmes": these famous words were pronounced by Simone Veil when she defended her law on abortion, in 1974, before the National Assembly. For the first time, women who have used a clandestine abortion in France before 1975 evoke their painful, release or traumatic experience. These moving testimonies make it possible to discover the incredible diversity of the means employed, the dangers incurred, the participation of children, the role of men, that of doctors, sometimes even the violence committed on women.More...- Romagna tropicaleNo data for this movieThere is no descriptionMore...
Similar Movies
Hi-De-Ho
1937-02-20Young Cab Calloway's mother is concerned, because Cab spends his days listening to the radio, pretending to lead a miniature orchestra. A deacon passing by the apartment hears him singing and advises him go to his wife's gypsy tea room. As she reads the tea leaves, she sees situations which lead to Cab and his orchestra performing musical numbers.Mother and Son
2022-11-25In the late 1980s, Rose moves from the Ivory Coast to the Paris suburbs with her two young sons, Ernest and Jean. Spanning 20 years from their arrival in France to the present day, the film is the moving chronicle of the construction and deconstruction of a family.Nuclear Family
2020-06-02Jules, 18 years old, reluctantly spends his holidays in the naturist campsite of his childhood. He is torn between his attraction for the beautiful Karim, a seasonal worker on the textile beach, and the depression of his mother Adèle, who refuses to let him grow up.My Intimate Partner
1960-08-10Adapted from a popular 'three dime novel' the story revolves around two down-and-out buddies, one streetwise and quick-witted the other naïve and kind-hearted. This oddball duo go through up and downs and eventually get their break in life.Niagara
2022-09-16A comedy drama about the fall, mourning and rebuilding of oneself around three brothers in their fifties who will have to reconnect after the death of their father who died prematurely from an unfortunate Ice Bucket Challenge.Pretty Red Dress
2023-06-16Travis has just been released from prison and it quickly becomes apparent that much has changed while he’s been gone. While girlfriend Candice is on the up and auditioning to star in a Tina Turner musical, daughter Kenisha is struggling in school and her relationship with her mum is tense. So, when Travis buys Candice her dream dress for an audition, rather than smoothing over the family’s problems, it ends up creating even more. As secrets and desires left unsaid threaten to spill out, Travis is forced to re-examine who he is and how he wants to be perceived in the world.The Breakfast
1998-01-01Curly Mulligan is the pupil who brings the headmaster a full fry-up every morning. When the head finds a hair in his breakfast, all hell breaks loose.The Sparks Brothers
2021-06-18Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron & Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.Three Days in August
2016-12-02An adopted Irish American artist confronts her past when both sets of parents come together over a weekend for her to paint a family portrait.American Pie Presents...
2005-10-31Everyone has 'moved on', except for Sherman and Jim Levenstein's still understanding father. Little Matt Stiffler wants to join his older brother Steve's business and, after everything Matt has heard from Jim's band-geek wife, he plans to go back to band camp and make a video of his own.The Sisters Brothers
2018-09-19Oregon, 1851. Hermann Kermit Warm, a chemist and aspiring gold prospector, keeps a profitable secret that the Commodore wants to know, so he sends the Sisters brothers, two notorious assassins, to capture him on his way to California.Mr. Holland's Opus
1995-12-29In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.Joseph
1995-04-10Joseph, favored son of Jacob and great-grandson of Abraham, is sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. Rising to become prime minister of Egypt. Joseph governed the country during a seven year famine, during which his brothers visit Egypt seeking grain, only to encounter their brother, presumed long dead.Dumb Money
2023-09-15Vlogger Keith Gill sinks his life savings into GameStop stock and posts about it. When social media starts blowing up, so do his life and the lives of everyone following him. As a stock tip becomes a movement, everyone gets rich—until the billionaires fight back, and both sides find their worlds turned upside down.The Skulls II
2002-04-09After joining the Skulls, Ryan Sommers (Robin Dunne) is warned not to betray any secrets about the organization or its high-powered members. However, when Ryan witnesses a murder within the Skulls' private chambers, he finds that the closer he gets to revealing the truth - the more dangerous life becomes.L'Esprit de famille
2020-01-29A writer must face the sudden death of his father, but after the burial, the latter reappears to him. He will have to learn to live with this facetious companion, but difficult to explain the situation to his family, because he is the only one who can see him. This disturbing presence will create an earthquake in the family.Boys Feels: Desire in...
2021-02-08These five award-winning coming of age short films offer a glimpse of how boys and young men tackle life's difficult desires: confronting one's demons, understanding sexual relationships, gaining the respect of one's father, or simply running away from it all. This is only the start of their complex formative years, where not every question has an answer, and not every answer makes sense. The short films are: Boys [Pojkarna] (2015); Ioana (2015); Kiem Holijanda (2017); Picnic [Piknik] (2015); Tomer & Elias [Tomer en Elias] (2016).Don't Think About It
2007-09-01Still an unsuccessful punk rock musician at 36, Stefano returns to his hometown in the countryside to help with his family's business.The Tree of Life
2011-05-17The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.To War We Go!
2012-06-23Wanting to leave their hometown, two friends set off on a military campaign in Afghanistan. When they return, it appears that their hometown is no longer the same.