Two brothers and one dire diagnosis adds up to a charming tale

There is no surer recipe for either comedy or drama than an odd couple: two characters from different worlds brought together by fate. This is the basis of the new French film My Brother’s BandThe story of two siblings who grew up unaware of each other’s existence and were adopted by separate families.

Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe) is an internationally successful conductor who has been diagnosed with leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. Her search for a successful donor leads her to Jimmy (Pierre Lottin), who lives a much more modest life and works in a cafeteria in a mining town in Northern France.

In his spare time, Jimmy plays the trombone in a local marching band, and while music becomes a symbol of everything that separates him from his brother, ultimately serving as a bridge between them.

Writer-director Emmanuel Courcol, who resembles a gentler schoolmaster, falls somewhere between these two characters (he began his career as a stage actor before turning to screenwriting, but did not direct his first feature film until his mid-fifties).

When we talk to him, it becomes clear that he identifies more closely with Thibaut, particularly his preference for what he explicitly calls “high-end” classical music. It’s also clear that there are parallels between life and art: Courcol wrote the role of Jimmy for Lottin, and the pair make an odd couple in their own right.

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Lottin, 36, has been a star in France for more than a decade, but until recently was much less well-known in the English-speaking world. He is best known in his home country for the Les Tuche film series. Villagers of Beverly About a working-class family who wins the lottery (last installment, God bless TuchesThe film, in which the family visits England, became the most popular domestic film in French cinemas this year).

Like everyone in the Tuche family, the Lottin character in these films is an ugly stereotype; He is a closet rapper who wears his hat backwards and speaks in a husky, high-pitched voice. The humor may have been lost in translation, but you can imagine French audiences feeling the same: Oily Pizza.

Over the past few years, Lottin has shown that there is much more to him than just generic comedy. He recently took on a supporting role in Francois Ozon’s highly praised thriller. When Autumn Comes – and before My Brother’s Bandhe and Courcol filmed another film together: the 2020 comedy-drama Big Hitabout a production Waiting for Godot It was staged in a prison.