The Triplettes of Belleville Directed by Sylvain Chomet
Starring: Jean-Claude Donda, Michel Robin, Monica Viegas, Evgeni Tomov Script: Sylvain Chomet Original Title: Les Triplettes de Belleville Running Time: 1:20 Country: France, Belgium Year: 2003 Official Site: The Triplettes of Belleville
What's good about French animation in particular and European in general is it's originality. It's difficult to define a particular style, which is a very French touch. Each film nourishes its own inspirations, without following a certain tradition, as one can see in American or Japanese animation films. The recent adaptation of Corto Maltese is an example, where the movements of the characters gave the impression of living a daydream in the company of timeless adventurers. Or Kirikou et la sorcière, where treasures of emotions were hidden behind an apparently simple feature. The Triplettes of Belleville, Sylvain Chomet's first full-length film (he previously directed the short The Old Lady and the Pigeons), is undoubtedly a good surprise: Action, humour, poetry and incredible technical control.
The Triplettes of Bellevilletook five years of labor to complete from the inception of the project. The patience and care taken with the details are found onscreen, in the architecture of the set, in the interiors, in the richness of the colors and the subtlety of the lighting. But The Triplettes of Belleville is above all about story and characters. Madame Souza, a nice and devoted grandmother, trains her nephew who is passionate about cycling. During the Tour de France, some gangsters kidnap the cyclist. The old lady, with the help of her dog Bruno, goes after the kidnappers who take her across the ocean, where she meets the triplettes, former music hall stars.
During the first part of the film, the audience sees the daily life of the nice old woman and her silent and melancholy nephew. Years pass and they train, whereas outside the city there are changes: voices, bridges, buildings and modernity invade the landscape. Right up to their window. One thinks of the universe of Caro and Jeunet's Delicatessen: a time that could be placed in the Fifties, with a welcome touch of anachronism. So where is this city hall of the 21st arrondisement that we suppose is Paris? In the dining room, the utensils and other details swarm: a gramophone, a stove, bottles, old pieces of furniture good for secondhand trade...in this first part of the film the work of Evgeni Tomov on the decor confers the nostalgic atmosphere of a past epoch. One thinks of the title, in Belleville, when this suburb existed outside the walls of Paris, when people believed they were in the countryside, when from the top of its hills one could see the Eiffel Tower in the distance. But this small corner lost to the capital is not the Belleville we're thinking about, since the Belleville in the title indicates a megalopolis, a sort of architectural mixture between New York and Montreal. By crossing the waters, the film goes aboard a second part which is for the most part left to action and adventure in a strange world more that is more nightmarish than dreamlike. All the locals suffer from obesity, the triplettes exclusively feed on frogs, and the Mafiosos have a currency that states "in vino veritas", drive old 2CV and wear berets... Chomet builds his world on a mixture of clichés.
Technically, The Triplettes of Belleville offers a spectacle of total beauty. The contribution of 3-D technology, always discrete, is only used to support the techniques of traditional drawing. This provides the opportunity, for example, to attend an impressive storm in the high seas. The animators took particular care with the characters' movements. The film goes without dialogue. All resides in the acting of the protagonists, inspired by mime and the great silent actors, like Buster Keaton, and even the percussions of Stomp. The distorted perspectives, in particular those of Belleville and the port with the immense ships, contribute to the somewhat fantastic atmosphere of the film. But what one takes away above all in The Triplettes of Belleville is the tenderness between an old lady and her nephew. Beyond the laughter, the action, and the geo-historical delights remains love, which is remembered by all at the end of the film. Nostalgia, when you hold us.
The Triplettes of Belleville movie review
