the crazy adventure of Lallaing harmony at the heart of the film “En fanfare”

Memories of filming, red carpet appearance in Cannes, invitation to the Star Academy… For almost two years, the forty musicians of the miners’ harmony of Lallaing, a small town in the North, have been living a waking dream. The release of Emmanuel Courcol’s comedy, this Wednesday, November 27, is an opportunity to look back on this unexpected odyssey.

Who would have believed it? That a harmony from a small northern village, like so many others in the region, finds itself in the spotlight of French cinema? Let a band of Ch’tis, unexpected heroes of a comedy, parade on the Croisette or liven up the set of the Star Académy. “It’s fantastic, we absolutely didn’t expect it.” confides Pascal Dumont, trumpeter of the fanfare.

There was one person who believed in this troupe of brass players until now unknown to the general public. It’s Emmanuel Courcol, the director ofA triumphwho will write the script for his new film A fanfare in the hands of the forty musicians from Lallin who, won over, will become the main protagonists, alongside the professional actors.

The story? That of a meeting between Benjamin Lavernhe, renowned conductor, and Pierre Lottin, musician in a harmony, who embody two brothers whom life has separated, and whom the chances of destiny reunite.

Filming begins in spring 2023 in Lallaing, in this town of 6,200 souls, flanked in the heart of the basin, near Douai. The town’s music school and its red bricks serve as settings for certain scenes and do not fail to recall the heritage of harmony, which draws its existence from the bottom of the coal pits.

Photos of mine trestles, pennants of Saint Barbara – the patron saint of black faces – or even a giant miner’s canvas… In the filmmaker’s framework, the social reality of an era and a region shines through. “The place is quite exotic, with a very strong identity, which reminds us of the mining country of Great Britain, in the landscape and the traditions,” told Emmanuel Courcol, who was inspired by the film Les Virtuoses (1996), about the members of a brass band in a mining town across the Channel.

What is still just a beautiful experience in the lives of these musicians will turn into a fairy tale on the evening of May 19, 2024. The film is selected by the organization of the Cannes festival. The director then invites the members of the harmony. “It’s an idea I’ve had in mind for a while, relates Emmanuel Courcol. We said to ourselves, you never know, if one day we do Cannes, we’ll bring these with us.”

“I had never taken a plane, it’s impressive when you leave the runway and climb to altitude.”

Daniel, musician at the Lallaing miners’ harmony

It’s done, the northern fanfare then boards at Lesquin airport. A first for Daniel: “I had never taken a plane, it’s impressive when you leave the runway and climb to altitude.” “For us, finding ourselves in Cannes, we never thought about it, we even joked about it,” blurted another. But reality imposes itself on them as they walk through the hall of a palace and the beaches of Cannes. “There are even people applauding us in the streets,” one of the members says with a smile. The heat of the North has just arrived on the Croisette.

The miracle of this stay takes shape on the tunes of Take me by Charles Aznavour, performed on the festival stage in front of more than 1,000 spectators. In the room, the rest of the film crew is jubilant. A shower of applause falls from the stands. The smiles are wide. The musicians shine, in all humility.

If the story is already beautiful, it doesn’t stop there. What follows is a marathon of previews in the country, including the triumphant one that will open the Arras Film Festival on November 8. At the end of the screening, the audience rose for an ovation lasting several minutes. Before seeing the marching band come on stage, in the flesh!

“I noticed that these brass bands are very family-oriented, that it’s a very collective outlet, which mixes generations.”

Benjamin Lavernhe, actor of En fanfare

A fanfare that seduces the heart of the film team. “Before I knew nothing about brass bands, admits actor Pierre Lottin. Now, having made this film, I simply love them, whether it’s the music they make, and they’re touching, they’re whole.” Benjamin Lavernhe abonde : “I noticed that these fanfares are very family-oriented, that it is a very collective outlet, which mixes generations. So that these people bring their charm, their humor and their authenticity to this film was an opportunity.”

With the promotion of the film, the northern fanfare will be projected outside its usual comfort zone, long confined to commemorations and majorette parades. In mid-November, she arrived on the set of Star Académy, on TF1. “It was a challenge for us, we knew that this was not our clientele, presents Olivier Viellard, one of the harmony directors. As in the film, it was the big gap between genres, the little harmony that met the star system.”

From the confessions of Olivier Viellard, this beautiful adventure will have “brought together and made proud” a whole group of musicians, aged from 13 to 80 years old. A group which, after an enchanted interlude, will resume the normal course of its life, or almost. Sunday December 1st, like every year, the band will give a concert for Sainte-Barbe in the municipal hall. But this year, she will have the honor of having in her ranks the professional musician Isabelle Zanotie, who is none other than the actress clarinetistA fanfare.

With Christelle Massin