http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/thetripletsofbellville.html
I saw this trailer today…and I keep watching it over and over again. It’s strangely hypnotic.
Has anyone else seen this? Has anyone seen the movie? I have no idea what it’s supposed to be or what it’s supposed to be about…but for some reason, I feel like I have to go see it.
I saw it a few weeks ago at the Hawaii Internation Festival. I give it a big meh. There were some funny parts but it mostly was just odd. So odd that I couldn’t feel anything towards any ofthe characters. But then I don’t really like querky movies about querky people. I have querky people in my family and believe you me they are mentally exhausting. The last thing I want to be reminded of in a theater is them.
It feels very Canadian. In fact if I hadn’t known it was French I would have assumed it was Canadian. There is almost no dialog at all. Everything is told in action and sound.
This is what it’s about. I’ll put it in spoilers in case you want to go in completely fresh.
A young man’s only goal in life is to ride in the Tour de France. When he gets kidnapped his Grandma goes after and rescue him.
Joke spoilers.
Boy oh boy do they slam on Americans in this film. We’re all extremely obese. There are other digs as well. Pick them out, it was the funnest part of this film for me.
Oh, and according to the IMDb there’s one last joke at the end of the credits. I always wait around for the end since I get rewarded every now and then. But I was attending with my Mom and her boyfriend and they wouldn’t wait. Damn it! I knew it. I just knew it.
Not that it would have been worth waiting for but I wanted to get every single ounce of enjoyment I could out of that movie.
Damn it!
[uncle]
One more thing.
[/uncle]
Might as well go see it since it’ll might be going up for the animation oscar. No way it’ll win but if you like animation you’ll want to say you’ve seen all the nominees.
It’s Triplets of Belleville. I thought it was brilliant and one of the very best animated films I have ever seen. Probably the best film of the year so far for me.
It has the fast-paced comic story-telling of Pixar at its best with every practically every scene having something unusual and amusing but it also creates a unique universe with its art style and character designs. It’s not very advanced technologically but shows that with animation you are primarily restricted by your imagination; in particular the designs of the buildings and cities are amazing. The film also has a real satirical edge directed at both the French and Americans. Some great use of music as well; in particular one scene of an ocean-crossing set to Mozart’s Requiem (IIRC) is truly awe-inspiring.
In the UK, it was called Belleville Rendezvous, btw…
I really liked it!
Post-Credits scene spoiler:
The bloke who hired out the pedallo is still on the beach waiting for them to come back…
I saw a trailer for it the other night, I want to see it if for no other reason, that I love the colours and look of the animation.
Actually, that makes we want to see it even more. I’m currently collecting all of Terry Gilliam’s films and I want to see “City of the Lost Childern”. Odd, Surrelistic things appeal to me.
I think I may have to check this one out… looked fairly interesting in the preview, and I thought the image of those guys in the black suits with the giant shoulders was very cool.
Well then this one might be for you. I can certainly see how it would greatly appeal to some people. It’s got this French grotesqueness about it that you see a lot in European movies. And I guess I should say that movies featuring querky people isn’t a no go for me liking them but I definately do not like seeing them too often.
I must say I didn’t find it very fast paced at all, rather I found it quite leisurely. It seemed they had a fondness to hold on certain scenes to let jokes play out long after you’ve got it or for showing every movement of some people moving about as they’re trying to create this austere environment. It really dragged for me then.
Visually it is a very interesting movie what with that grotesqueness. And I will agree that their grand scenes were quite impressive.
Ahh so this is how you spell quirky. How embarassing.
Perhaps fast-paced was not the right word. What I meant was that there is very little flab in the film. Almost every scene has a punch-line and a point.
For example there is scene with a vacuum cleaner, newspaper and refrigerator which is rather puzzling at first but which gets you a delightful payoff just a short while later.
That I’ll agree with. Most everything is there for a reason.
Wow, I didn’t realize how much in the minority I was. Rotten tomatoes.com lists only 1 rotten review and that’s in the lower tier of reviewers.
I’ve been thinking about it and I think I know exactly why I didn’t much care for this film.
[spoiler]It’s the characters. Champion as a young boy was full of emotions and hopes and dreams but very quickly he grows up and becomes a completely emotionless metaphorical horse. He has a bored expression no matter what’s happening to him. Sure it was funny when the other rider got show right next to him and he showed no reaction but it really left me dead to the character.
Grandma also seemed to have only one expression, the staring blink. She seemed to go after her grandson only because that’s what she’s supposed to do. I didn’t need a lot but something would have really helped this film along for me.
The dog was the only main character that showed any emotion but he just annoyed me. If he was my dog I’d just give him away.
So since it completely lost me with the characters it became to me a leisurely paced gag film which has some very interesting visuals and thin story. I just needed more. If the entire cast was killed at the halfway point and another storyline brought in I wouldn’t have been bothered at all.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Yes, it is a rather unforgiving take on American culture, but the French characters themselves are all grotesques. Apart possibly from the frogs, everybody has some ugly facet to their appearance and behaviour. Of course, I can easily say that as the unoffended Scotsman …
And, while we’re in the spoiler box, the gag at the end of the credits is okay, yet hardly noteworthy.[/spoiler]
Overall, worth seeing, but easy to over-rate.
Thread title changed to reflect accurate film title.
I saw this just before Christmas and thought it was the best damn movie I’d seen all year, except maybe for American Splendor.
CanNOT get that opening tune out of my head, with the accompanying images of tiny tuxedoed men wedged into fat evening-gowned arses, of Django Reinhardt playing the guitar with his feet, and of a tap-dancer being eaten by his own shoes.
Highly recommended to all lovers of weird shit, of animation, and of shit-weird animation.
The film is Canadian, at least partially. It’s a co-production and the director is Canadian. It also feels like an NFB short blown up to feature length. I thought it had some stunning moments but didn’t really have the depth to fill even the 78 minutes. Less of a musical than you’d think, as well.
It has some amazing animation but some of the sequences go on for far too long. It’s a 70-minute film that felt 2 hours long.
I loved the film especially the beginning sequence. That was masterful.
I didn’t find the film too long or too short. There are no throwaway scenes. Everything fits in somehow.
It will get nominated for Best Animated Film, but will have no chance of beating out “Finding Nemo”, but there’s no shame in that.
Here in LA it was Les Triplettes De Belleville.
I’m pretty much in agreement with Fern Forest. I enjoyed the soundtrack much more than the film, to be honest.
First heard of this film over the weekend at the local art house (caught In America and 21 Grams, saw the same previews both times). The missus leaned over the second time through this one and said, “Okay, that looks weird enough to be good.”
Ren-dez-voooooooooous.