AllMovie

This unpretentious Dutch film was the handiwork of Bert Haanstra, Holland's foremost postwar director. As Haanstra's first feature-length effort (he'd built his reputation on a series of shorts dealing with famous Flemish painters), Fanfare displays no awkwardness with its extended length. The story takes place in the tiny village of Giethorn, where two amateur brass bands vie for one government grant. The film's satire of small-town pretentiousness is leavened somewhat by a romance involving a saucy lass and the village's only policeman. Fanfare was completed with the help and moral support of British director Alexander Mackendrick, who'd previously helmed such similarly provincial comedies as Whisky Galore and The Maggie.