Keswick Film Club - Reviews - The Marching Band

Our last film of the autumn season is possibly my new favourite Christmas movie. While there is no action hero in a vest with a machine gun, there is a hero with a baton and another with a trombone, and after all Writer & Director, Emmanuel Courcol, was born on Christmas Day (1957).

Here he serves us up a good natured heartwarmer, a well paced drama covering a multitude of bases involving family drama, secrets, unrequited love, and of course lots of music.

There's classical music with the main character being a distinguished conductor in Paris who is shocked to find he has leukaemia and then that he is an adopted son so his immediate family are not suitable bone marrow donors. Quickly he locates his birth family finding that his mother is dead but he has brother. This is the other main character; the trombonist in a miners brass band with a love of old jazz recordings living with his adoptive mother in the industrial north of France - the region, Hauts de France; which includes Calais and Lille, has a strong tradition of brass bands.

The story unfolds and music brings them together and with further ups and down by the there's not a dry eye in the house.

I was lucky enough to see this French concert bromance on the big screen at Rheged during the Keswick Film Festival in March and loved it as did many more of us as it won our audience vote at what was the 25th Festival in this year. Join us in 2026 for the 26th Festival(18th to 22nd March) and the opportunity to see more exceptional films many of which will never make it into commercial cinemas in the UK.