{"id":14850,"date":"2012-04-05T09:01:40","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T08:01:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=14850"},"modified":"2012-04-06T09:32:47","modified_gmt":"2012-04-06T08:32:47","slug":"film-notes-13-the-triplets-of-belleville-2003","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2012\/04\/05\/film-notes-13-the-triplets-of-belleville-2003\/","title":{"rendered":"Film Notes #13: The Triplets of Belleville (2003)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Triplets-of-Belleville.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-14851\" title=\"The Triplets of Belleville\" src=\"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/The-Triplets-of-Belleville.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>SPOILER ALERT: Plot details will be revealed!<\/p>\n<p>Sylvain Chomet&#8217;s delightful animated film is Number 13 in my Film Notes series.<\/p>\n<p>For those unfamiliar, this series of posts involves me watching a film every day for 30 days, with the following rules:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It must be a film I have <em>already<\/em> seen.<\/li>\n<li>I must make notes <em>whilst<\/em> I\u2019m watching it.<\/li>\n<li>Pauses are allowed but the viewing must all be one session.<\/li>\n<li>It can\u2019t be a current cinema release.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It will hopefully capture my instant thoughts about a movie provide a snapshot of my film diet for 30 days and curate interesting links to the film in question.<\/p>\n<p>Here are my notes on <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0286244\/\">The Triplets of Belleville<\/a><\/strong> (2003) which I watched on DVD on Wednesday 4th April.<\/p>\n<p>N.B. For some reason it was released in the UK as Belleville Rendez-vous but it seems the title has now realigned with the rest of the world.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I first saw this at 20th Century Fox in London during July 2003<\/li>\n<li>It is still a film I return to and marvel at for it&#8217;s incredible surreal charm.<\/li>\n<li>This was Chomet&#8217;s first feature and an international co-production between companies in France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Canada.<\/li>\n<li>The &#8216;period&#8217; opening is very well done, establishing the notion of the Triplets as famous singers (even though they are very much supporting characters)<\/li>\n<li>This is a film I often recommend to people if they are bored of mainstream animation and want something a bit different and unusual.<\/li>\n<li>It combines the imaginative panache of SPIRITED AWAY (2001) with the wordless charm of THE ARTIST (2011)<\/li>\n<li>I actually want to live in Madame Souza&#8217;s house with a dog like Bruno.<\/li>\n<li>Sound is vital in lending the slightly surreal animation a sense of realism. Especially since there is virtually no dialogue.<\/li>\n<li>The emotional distance between the young boy and his grandma is well established.<\/li>\n<li>Touching scene when we see the boy&#8217;s parents &#8211; presumably Souza&#8217;s son\/daughter?<\/li>\n<li>Great touch that Bruno goes crazy at the passing trains &#8211; clearly this was written by dog owners.<\/li>\n<li>The use of a Hoover, whisk and mower for a cycling warm down is hilarious<\/li>\n<li>Interesting circular shot as Souza puts the model wheel on the model Eiffel tower<\/li>\n<li>Absence of dialogue makes us focus on the nuances of character<\/li>\n<li>Interesting choice of shots when we see Champion from above and when Souza reflects on the photos before turning the lights off<\/li>\n<li>Love the way Bruno jumps on the bed the way big dogs actually do.<\/li>\n<li>Bruno&#8217;s dream sequences are genius.<\/li>\n<li>Souza&#8217;s whistle is another good example of sound in the film (Foley is actually<\/li>\n<li>The gangsters bodies have an interesting geometric shape &#8211; note that all characters in this are distinctive but have key differences<\/li>\n<li>The kidnap of Champion happens slowly &#8211; in a lot of movies they happen in a flash<\/li>\n<li>The pedalo sequence is unexpectedly moving<\/li>\n<li>Belleville is a cross between Tim Burton&#8217;s Gotham in BATMAN (1989) and the environments of Jean-Pierre Jeunet&#8217;s THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN (1995)<\/li>\n<li>Hamburger restaurant scene seems to be some kind of commentary on American obesity and capitalism<\/li>\n<li>In the triplets apartment even the Oscars are overweight (the film was nominated for Best Animated film)<\/li>\n<li>The fishing for frogs scene is an instant classic<\/li>\n<li>Transitions between scenes are worth keeping an eye on &#8211; note how\u00a0frog spawn\u00a0becomes the moon<\/li>\n<li>Why does one of the Triplets stop Souza from doing the hoovering and reading the paper? (Maybe the latter is a stage prop?)<\/li>\n<li>I love the fact that the sisters all watch TV together in bed<\/li>\n<li>What exactly is going on with the kidnapped cyclists? Contraband electricity?<\/li>\n<li>Residents of the nightclub seem suitably grotesque.<\/li>\n<li>I read once that despite eating fattier food, rates of obesity in France are much lower than the US. Why? Healthier ingredients and smaller portions.<\/li>\n<li>Like the visual image of gangsters in pairs<\/li>\n<li>The betting scene reminds me of THE DEER HUNTER (1978) &#8211; it also appears to be some kind of commentary on the film technique of rear-projection<\/li>\n<li>The framing, composition and overall visual storytelling are excellent.<\/li>\n<li>Almost every scene is punctuated with a surreal, inventive humour.<\/li>\n<li>Theatre scene reminds me of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009)<\/li>\n<li>Note the yellow headlights on the gangster&#8217;s cars.<\/li>\n<li>I like the fact that one of the &#8216;vehicles&#8217; during the climax is effectively a portable cinema.<\/li>\n<li>Nice payoff with Bruno barking at the train on the level crossing<\/li>\n<li>It just struck me that the gangsters all look like Neville Thurlbeck<\/li>\n<li>What other film ends up with four old women and a dog being chased by gangsters in a car chase?<\/li>\n<li>Chomet&#8217;s follow up film would be the equally marvellous THE ILLUSIONIST (2010)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><script src=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/filmdetail\/film-notes-13-the-triplets-of-belleville-2003.js\"><\/script><noscript>[<a href=\"http:\/\/storify.com\/filmdetail\/film-notes-13-the-triplets-of-belleville-2003\" target=\"_blank\">View the story &#8220;Film Notes #13: The Triplets of Belleville (2003)&#8221; on Storify<\/a>]<\/noscript><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sylvain Chomet&#8217;s delightful animated film is Number 13 in my Film Notes series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2487],"tags":[2520,2519],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14850"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}