The Triplets of Belleville - Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003)

"What have you got to say to Grandma?"

Director

Sylvain Chomet

Cast
Graziellia de Villa - Madam Souza

Noël Baye - Champion

There's no other way for me to start this post other than stating right away that this is one of the best animated movies I have ever seen. Among those "seen" movies I'm referring to, I'm thinking along the lines of some of Disney's early films that were clearly made for the sake of showing off the company's animation skills - "Fantasia" (1940), "Make Mine Music" (1946), "Melody Time" (1948), and "Sleeping Beauty" (1959). Those are impressively animated movies which, to me, stand above the rest of Disney movies as far as animation goes. 

I'm also referring to another impressively animated film, "Akira" (1988), from Japan. In my mind, "Akira" certainly sets a high animation standard. 

As I've mentioned before, back in my single and living alone days I used to pull random movies off the shelf at my local library so I could call myself cultured. I'd look for movies I was completely unfamiliar with. The French animated film "Les Triplettes de Belleville" was one such movie. I watched the U.S. version "The Triplets of Belleville" which I'm fairly certain is the same as the French version, but in English. Regardless, I was instantly enthralled with its story, atmosphere, style, animation, music, humor, and imagery.

You know, there have been a few instances (maybe more?) when I've watched a movie, and after a while completely forgot I ever watched it. Normally, my wife is the one who reminds me I've seen a forgotten movie before. If I happen to watch something my wife and I have seen before, something will click in the back of my mind prompting me to ask, "have we seen this before?" The answer is normally "yes." But the when, why, and where is forever lost in my memory even after my wife recalls those details.

In some cases, I'll faint recollections of actors or scenes will remain in the back of my mind like ghosts in a haunted house but everything else is gone. 

Such is the case with Elijah Wood's 2005 movie, "Everything is Illuminated." 

I remember watching it. I remember Wood's role, and some of the scenes. Yet, I had to look up Wood's filmography because I couldn't remember the storyline nor the title. 

Thankfully, "The Triplets of Belleville," a film by French animator and director, Sylvain Chomet, has remained completely unforgotten since I first found it at the library over 10 years ago. 

The film opens with the singing trio, Rose, Violette, and Blanche, in the height of their musical career. The animation in the opening scene is stylized like a Max Fleischer cartoon of the 1930s. Characters have rubbery contortions, wavy thin arms and wide-open eyes, (i.e. Betty Boop or Popeye). Overweight wives drag along their small, subjected, skinny husbands behind them. 

A Vaudeville-esque show opens with musical performances from the likes of Fred Astaire and Josephine Baker. Each one ends terribly.

The story shifts to somewhere in France where Madame Souza is raising her grandson, Champion. They're watching this opening segment as it airs on an old variety show on television.

Souza asks the young Champ "is it over?" Clearly bored and, perhaps, a bit depressed, he doesn't reply. Instead, he watches the next segment - a piano concert of Glenn Gould playing Bach.

The opening of "The Triplets of Belleville," animated in
the style of early cartoonist Max Fleischer.

Of course, Souza takes notice of Champ's potential interest in the piano music. She drags out an old piano and tries to raise his spirits and his interest by playing scales. Champ doesn't take the bait. 

Souza realizes that her grandson is suffering from loneliness. So, she gets him a dog named Bruno.

Though he does appreciate the dog, neither Bruno nor anything else his grandmother gives him to raise him up from the doldrums of loneliness seems to work. 

While making his bed one afternoon, she looks at all the pictures of bicycles and bicyclists he has taped to his bedroom wall. She also finds his scrapbook filled with cutouts of bicyclists and bicycles.

So, Souza gets him a tricycle. Champ is thrilled!

He now has a means to pursue his passion of bicycling.  

The story shifts to Champ as an adult. Souza helps her grandson train for the Tour de France.

She even fixes his bike wheel and bent spokes. 

During the Tour de France, Champ and a couple other bicyclists are kidnapped by mafia henchmen 

who take them across the ocean to the U.S. 

Realizing what has happened, Souza pursues them by renting a paddleboat and chasing the ship across the ocean. 

Once she's in America, in the City of Bellville, she has no money and no place to stay. But she's determined regardless to find her grandson.

While camping out under a bridge one night, trying to occupy her mind by making a small tune on Champ's bicycle wheel, the famous Triplets just so happen to stumble upon her small encampment and take her to their apartment for food and warmth. 

Impressed by her musical talent, they include her into their musical show. 

During a performance at a swanky night club, Souza recognizes the mobsters who kidnapped Champ.

With the help of the Triplets, she is able to follow them to Champ's location where he and other bicyclists are forced to bike in a simulated race for gambling purposes. 

Souza and the Triplets square up against an entire underground of thugs to rescue Champ.

"The Triplets of Belleville" accomplishes a lot with very little spoken word. 

The only speech in the movie comes through electronic means - the television, a record, a radio. Or, when Madame Souza speaks to her grandson while off screen. 

Charlie Chaplin did something similar with his movie, "Modern Times" (1936). Save for Chaplin's gibberish pantomime song in that film, the majority of speech comes through artificial means - a screen intercom, a radio, or an audio recording. 

An old rule of storytelling is to show rather than tell. This film follows the rule superbly leaving so much room for the pantomime to speak for itself. And what's more impressive is that the characters are likeable without having to talk.

The triplets themselves are certainly an odd trio, finding the means in ordinary objects to make music - a old refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner, and a newspaper. Each item is treated with respect. 

The city of Belleville is just as much a caricature as the characters themselves. It's a mix of New York City, Paris, Montral and Quebec City according to a 2003 article in the SF Gate. 

The rampant self-indulgence of the city is portrayed through the obesity of just about everyone in town. Even their "Statue of Liberty" is robust and portly. 

On top of that, the image of wine bottles is incorporated in most of the city's architecture. 

There's a running quip among some of the side characters taking on animal characteristics. A short maintenance guy whom Souza follows to the mafia thugs has protruding buck teeth and makes a squeaking noise when he breaths.

Some of the bicyclists have longer faces like a horse and make horse sounds when out of breath. 

One subtle jab shows a logo with a smiling cow's face that looks like a woman. 

And the diet of the sisters is frogs prepared in various forms, even as dessert. 

The sound and musical scores, particularly the use of Mozart's Mass in C Minor, are absolutely amazing and truly effective in establishing the atmosphere Chomet is animating. 

His animation is masterful as it steals the show. To me, the style is like Al Hirschfeld caricatures heavily mixed with French street art. The detail is entrancing. I could stare at these images for hours. The subtle innocent pokes at society, down to the characters eye movements, as well as the depiction of light and shadow is what makes the animation stand out among other animated movies. 

A lot of scenes possess so much that it takes several rewatches to see it all. This, mixed with the panning to show off each nuance and detail, is entrancing. 

Chomet's work is certainly not obscure. The film simply deserves more attention. 

He once animated a couch gag for the sitcom "The Simpsons" in 2014. The show even parodied "The Triplets of Belleville" in the episode "Angry Dad: The Movie" (season 22, episode 14). 

This is a fresh movie unlike any other animated film I've seen. The story is drips with originality. The care and devotion of Chomet, who was inspired by his own youth, is ever present in the work. 

The same is true for the film's pacing. Initially, I thought this would drag out. How wrong I was. 

At a run time of one hour and 21 minutes, the film accomplishes its goal without overstaying its welcome. The film's title song "Belleville Rendez-Vous" sung by French rock singer, Matthieu Chedid, known professionally as "M," left me with an ear worm. It's catchy! 
Chomet's film is a jewel of a film in the world of animation. It certainly sets an animation standard.