Film Review: The Triplets of Belleville - Belleville Rendez-vous (2003)

Figure 1 - Belleville Rendez-vous - poster

Belleville Rendez-vous is a film full of stylised characters, locations and a tendency for macabre exaggeration, Chomet created a film born in French artistry as "It playfully alludes to Jacques Tati" (Bradshaw, 2003), a style which bleeds through every aspect of its characters alone with Albert Debout whose caricature is evident in the design of its exaggeration.  

Society gains meaning through history of grand narratives, this alludes to the creation of tradition in genres, Chomet has carefully deconstructed the understanding of what animation is and uses this to create animation which is eerily bittersweet to a western audience, the example of Disney, a style which is extremely prevalent in western culture depicts characters who cater towards a young audience, this is done by giving the characters personalities less developed for an adult and more receptive to a child. "Audiences inevitably draw a sharp contrast between the text they are engaging with and the encyclopedic knowledge of texts that they carry with them" (Levine, 2013) Levine suggests our prior knowledge of animation creates an imbalance with Belleville which is disquietingly refreshing because it is catering for a more adult audience without being exclusive, its use of subject matter including murder, kidnap, poverty and the French mafia whilst remaining light-hearted through its whimsical environment, wacky humour and comical characters. (here's looking at you frogs!).   

Figure 2 - Jacques Tati

"A deliberately antiquated visual style" (Dawson, 2003)

Figure 3 - Albert Dubout

Belleville is primarily about the connection with the people we love, and the efforts of persistence we make to the ones we love, Scott sums that up by remarking "The movie is more about passion and the importance of the bonds that we share" (Scott, 2008), its arguable that the films exuberance of French-ness attest to this comment because of our understanding of French history. A nation who has always stood up to 'Bullies', be it Politicians, Royalty or corporation. Its ability to explain personal connection is symbolic of the rise of big business, the home environment of Champion and his grandmother is of a quaint French town which over time has built up. It is arguably it is a humble amount to increase, Belleville is literally spilling into the sea where it is overflowing with the corporation. Food is symbolic of money it could be argued, which then suggests that the obese residents of the city are all rich, this is reinforced during the scene were Madame Souza tries to pay for hamburgers but has no money, connecting the two items together, this leads to her meeting the elderly Belleville Triplets who have very little in this world which suggests that having less is in fact culturally and creatively more. 

The film ends with blue, white and red fireworks and a discarded beret as the protagonists escape the city, all of which leaves us with a final taste of France. 

Viva La Francis!   

Bibliography:

Bradshaw, P. (2003). Belleville Rendez-Vous | Reviews | guardian.co.uk Film. [online] Theguardian.com. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/News_Story/Critic_Review/Guardian_review/0,4267,1030893,00.html [Accessed 8 Feb. 2019].

Dawson, T. (2003). BBC - Films - review - Belleville Rendez-Vous. [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/08/06/belleville_rendezvous_2003_review.shtml [Accessed 7 Feb. 2019].

Scott, J. (2008). The Triplets of Belleville analysis. [online] Satirist.org. Available at: http://satirist.org/swapa/belleville.html [Accessed 8 Feb. 2019].

Levine, S. (2013). Intertextual Rendez-Vous: Viewing The Triplets of Belleville from an American Perspective. [online] Media Theory and Digital Culture. Available at: https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/cctp-748-spring2013/2013/03/13/intertextual-rendez-vous-viewing-the-triplets-of-belleville-from-an-american-perspective/ [Accessed 8 Feb. 2019].

Illustrations:

Figure 1: Belleville Rendez-vous (2003) [Film Poster] - Sylvain Chomet: Les Armateurs, Vivi Film, Production Champion

Figure 2: Tati, J. (2019). Untitled. 

Figure 3: Debout, A. (2019). Untitled.