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Review: Allison Browning | Rating:
2
LES Triplettes de Belleville (The triplets of Bellville),
part of Cinema Paradiso's French film festival.
DIRECTOR, Sylvain Chomet, has created a poetic feast, with acute
attention to detail in his eccentric cartoon, Les triplettes de
Belleville.
Barely a word is spoken in the entire piece, but not one is needed,
for Chomet has masterfully created characters that truly live,
and, with each gesture, create a whirlwind of laughter and emotion.
Tiny 'Grandma', who has one leg shorter than the other, is left
with her saddened grandson, Champion, and wants to make him happy.
When grandma buys little grandson a tricycle, a whole New World
is opened. Grandma begins training Champion for the Tour de France
and he makes it.
By this stage, Champion's muscle structure makes him look like
a mutant racehorse.
However, something fishy is going on, in this particular Tour
de France.
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The French Mafia is secretly collecting some of the competitors
from the steep incline toward the end of the race.
Granny smells trouble, and with the help of her faithful dog,
who is twice her size, they go about following the Mafia on a
recreational paddleboat across the sea to Bellville, a far away
sea port town.
Granny meets the pigeon toed triplettes, a Jazz group who play
house-hold appliances as instruments, and only eat frogs.
They take her under their wing and into their strange world of
frogs and refrigerator Jazz, and help track down Champion, who
is being used in an unusual Mafia betting racket.
Les Triplettes de Bellville is made so special by the small details
and they are beautifully eccentric.
We are taken on a journey not only to find Champion, but a journey
into the workings of these character's minds.
A combination of doggy dreams, tadpole popcorn, and characters
that appear to really feel makes for a world where anything is
possible, leaving the audience mesmerised.
Rarely does one go to the cinema to find it full, from front
row to back, and even more rare is an applause as the credits
roll, but this is the impact of 'Triplettes'.
If you did not see this film in Cinema Paradiso's French film
festival, track it down!
Editor's note: The film is being screened at Cinema Paradiso
on May 13 - book now!
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