Les Triplettes de Belleville

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Les Triplettes de Belleville (The Triplets of Belleville)
Directed by	Sylvain Chomet
Produced by	Didier Brunner Paul Cadieux Regis Ghezelbash Colin Rose Viviane Vanfleteren
Written by	Sylvain Chomet
Starring	Béatrice Bonifassi Lina Boudreault
Music by	Benoît Charest
Distributed by	Diaphana Films (France Theatrical) Sony Pictures Classics (US Theatrical) Tartan Films (UK)
Release date(s)	11 June 2003 (France) 29 August 2003 (UK) November 26, 2003 (US, limited release)
Running time	78 Minutes
Country	France Belgium Canada UK
Language	French
Budget	$2,000,000 [citation needed]
IMDb profile

Les Triplettes de Belleville (aka Belleville Rendez-vous-UK title and in English The Triplets of Belleville) is a 2003 French-Belgian-Canadian animated feature film directed and written by Sylvain Chomet. Featuring the voices of Michèle Caucheteux, Jean-Claude Donda, Michel Robin, and Monica Viegas, it was highly praised by audiences and critics for its unique (and somewhat retro) style of animation.

It was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song (Benoît Charest and Sylvain Chomet for the song "Belleville Rendez-Vous", sung by artist Matthieu Chédid in the original version). It has won the César of the Best Film Music. As a co-production with Canada it also won the Genie Award for Best Motion Picture.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Notes 3 See also 4 External links

[edit] Plot

Following a 1930s-style cartoon parody featuring the singing Triplettes of the title (Violette, Blanche, and Rose, named after the colours of the French flag) in their heyday, as well as caricatures of Django Reinhardt, Josephine Baker, and Fred Astaire, the story focuses on Madame Souza, an elderly woman raising her orphaned grandson Champion.

While he is a child, she buys him a tricycle, and as the years pass he achieves such excellence as a bicycle rider that he enters the Tour de France. Unfortunately he and two other riders are kidnapped and brought to the fictional city of Belleville (the inhabitants of Belleville represent caricatured 1950s-era American stereotypes, but the city itself is a cross between Paris, Montreal and New York City; it is not strictly in the United States, since the people of Belleville speak French to the extent that they speak at all) where a gangster forces them to bicycle all day long on a gambling machine located in the bowels of the Belleville French Wine Center. With the aid of the family dog Bruno, Madame Souza sets off across the Atlantic on a small pedalo to the city of Belleville where she meets the Triplettes, now aged and decrepit but still performing, and between them they set out to rescue her grandson.

[edit] Notes

The film is extremely satirical, poking fun at the French obsession with the Tour de France and other cultural stereotypes; in turn, it depicts Americans as either gross, comically obese people, or muscular mobsters. The film features no spoken dialogue per se, though some spoken words (such as Tour de France radio commentary and a speech by Charles De Gaulle on evening TV) are included sporadically throughout the picture.

For many, the film's strength is found in its visual nuances and wit, including the sight of an exceedingly Django Reinhardt-like character playing along to the dancing 'Triplettes', who in their old age continue to entertain in the form of a cabaret/skiffle act using household items (newspaper, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner) as makeshift instruments, and a dynamic animated car chase.

Chomet freely admits to influences from the comic realms of the sitcom. For example, the waiter at a club is based upon Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers. There are also references to the French director Jacques Tati's films Jour de Fête and Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot.

[edit] See also

• List of animated feature films

[edit] External links

• Les Triplettes de Belleville at the Internet Movie Database
• Official website (French)
• Official website (Sony-classics)