Review of the film Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003) (2025)

Film Review

Proving that there is a place for adult-targeted animated features if they are of a highenough standard, Les Triplettes de Belleville was one of the world cinema highlightsof 2003, critically acclaimed and a box office success. With its mix of the traditionaland the breath-takingly original, this stunning animated work - a French, Belgian andCanadian collaboration - may well usher in a new era of animation, at last putting upa worthy rival to the all-conquering Disney Corporation.

Given the success and celebrity this film has enjoyed, it is remarkable how difficultits director, the French-born Sylvain Chomet, had to get financial backing for the project.Without Chomet's drive and self-confidence, this film would probably never have seen thelight of day, and we would have been denied the pleasure of a spectacular piece of animation.Chomet's only other work to date was a short animated film, La Vieille Dame et lespigeons, which earned him a certain amount of recognition but nothing like the esteemLes Triplettes de Belleville has given him.

Crafted using traditional 2D animation techniques - a painstaking effort which explainswhy the film spent over two years in production - Les Triplettes de Bellevillehas the comforting appeal of the classical animé we all know and love from childhood.This also adds to the film's very distinctive mood and atmosphere, which has a similarmelancholic poetry to that seen in Paul Grimault's LeRoi et l'oiseau and Caro and Jeunet's Delicatessen. Chomet's main concern appears to have been the characterisation - thisis certainly the area where the film is most successful. From the kind-hearted,indefatigable Madame Souza, to the low-spirited grandson, to the eccentric Bellevilletriplets, the characters in this animated work will live in our minds long after we haveseen the film.

Although aimed at an adult audience, Les Triplettes de Belleville should also appealto children - certainly the 11 to 15 age bracket - who may find it a welcome antidoteto the latest sanitised, overly sentimental offering from Disney. Certainly thereis some great comedy in this film - the frog eating scene being irresistibly funny - butthe dramatic (yet oddly surreal) thriller angle, which takes off with a vengeance in thefilm's last twenty minutes, is what may appeal most to the Lara Croft generation.

Witty, poignant and hugely original, Les Triplettes de Belleville stands as bothan enjoyable piece of cinematic entertainment and a respectable work of art. Isthe animated bande-dessinée about to become a whole new genre in Frenchcinema?

© James Travers 2003

The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.

Film Synopsis

The solitary Madame Souza is resolved to do all she can to cheer up her sad orphaned grandson,Champion. When she discovers his passion for cycling, she buys him a bicycle andstarts to train him so that he can enter the Tour de France cycling competition.The years pass, and Champion, now a fit young man, has every chance of living up to hisname. But during the Tour, he is kidnapped by sinister black-clad gangsters andtaken across the ocean to the seedy city of Belleville. With her trusty dog Bruno,Madame Souza sets out to rescue her grandson, not realising what despicable fate his captorshave in store for him. Her quest seems futile until she meets up with three agedwomen, former music hall performers who have fallen on hard times. Can these, theonce celebrated Belleville triplets, help Madame Souza save her unfortunate grandson...?

© James Travers

The above content is owned by frenchfilms.org and must not be copied.

• Director: Sylvain Chomet
• Script: Sylvain Chomet
• Music: Benoît Charest
• Cast: Béatrice Bonifassi (Triplets (singing voice)),Lina Boudreau (Triplets),Mari-Lou Gauthier (Triplets),Charles Linton ((singing voice)),Michèle Caucheteux,Jean-Claude Donda,Michel Robin,Monica Viegas
• Country: France / Belgium / Canada / UK / Latvia
• Language: French / Portuguese
• Support: Color
• Runtime: 80 min
• Aka: Belleville Rendez-vous ;The Triplets of Belleville