En Fanfare

This French spin on Mark Herman’s ‘Brassed Off’ (the British comedy-drama about colliery bands) has a beating emotional pulse of its own. Originally screened as a preview in our Autumn French Film Festival UK.

Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe) is an internationally renowned conductor of the Lille Symphony Orchestra who travels the world. He discovers he was adopted - then also finds out he has a younger brother, Jimmy (Pierre Lottin), who works in a school cafeteria and plays the trombone in a school marching band. While they seem to be worlds apart, their unwavering love of music unites them in difficult circumstances. The third feature film by screenwriter, actor and director Emmanuel Courcol emerges as an immensely touching and melodious work, bringing relationships and music to the fore. (Subtitles)

France 2024 Emmanuel Courcol 103m

Not only a cinematic journey into the mind of Eileen Gray, but a story about the power of female expression and men's desire to control it.

Delicate, white and ship-like, E1027 is a house, or rather, a work of art, which is perched above a bay on the Cote d’Azur whose wildness was, when it was finished in 1929, the opposite of the worldly charms of nearby Monte Carlo.  Behind it isn’t only the magic of an architectural body come to life, but also the complexity of a trio of brilliant minds, namely the architects Eileen Gray, Jean Badovici and Le Corbusier. Structured like a docufiction which brings together archive images, reenactments and a voice over that gently accompanies the images (mostly that of Eileen Gray speaking in the first person), the film shows moments of intimacy that we can only imagine. Rather than a historical reconstruction based on meticulous analysis the co-directors put architecture in dialogue with cinema in order to bring to life the sensibility of a woman who was a visionary yet is too rarely celebrated. (Some subtitles)

Switzerland 2024 Beatrice Minger/Christoph Schaub 89m

A crowd-pleasing warm-hearted comedy that has an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island dreaming of getting his favourite musicians back together.

Kind and chatty Charles (Tim Key) lives alone on the remote Wallis Island. Beautiful and serene with white cliffs and rocky shores (it was shot in Wales), it is not the kind of place where there is a lot of socializing. He dreams of getting his favourite musicians, McGwyer Mortimer (Tom Basden & Carey Mulligan) back together. His fantasy turns into reality when the bandmates and former lovers accept his invitation to play a private show at his home the Island. Old tensions resurface as the artists reunite now at different phases in their lives. Mulligan and Basden are sublime together, naturally exuding the awkward chemistry of artist exes, with Key thoroughly entertaining as the adorable comedic foil. This is the sort of film that oozes mood and warmth (like the folk songs performed in the film) and is very easy to recommend to anyone.

UK 2025 James Griffiths 100m

50th Anniversary Restoration. Light the Rock n' Roll spark with a Flame in the guise of Dave, Noddy, Jim and Don and their showcase of the rise and demise of rock band Flame.

Set in the hardships of North England's seventies working class society and music scene, this is a fictional tale but based on true experiences and starring the band themselves as the members of Flame. We follow the rise and fall of a pop group at the end of the 1960s – from bold beginnings in seedy clubs to booze-addled endings in spectacular stadiums – this darkly cynical, warts-and-all portrait of a band in freefall amidst the music-industry suits who want a piece of the pie was not what anybody was expecting.

UK 1975 Richard Loncraine 91m