Les triplettes de Belleville

Director: Sylvain Chomet

Starring: Béatrice Bonifassi, Lina Boudreau

Originally screened in Britain as Belleville Rendez-Vous, Les Triplettes de Belleville is amongst the most distinctive animated films of the decade. Sticking proudly to a nostalgic style, it depicts a grotesque but melancholy world with impressive imagination.

After training for years to become a professional cyclist, the magnificently focused (and misleadingly named) Champion reaches the Tour de France. Unfortunately his efforts are cut short mid-race by a nefarious team of kidnapping Mafioso’s. In following the attempt to rescue Champion the film moves from dull provincial France to a hideous city. This expedition is led by the hero’s decrepit grandmother - accompanied by her obese dog, and later a titular trio of retired singing siblings.

Whilst many animated films create a ‘real’ looking world before flying off into magical fantasies, Les Triplettes de Belleville remains rooted in often grim locations. The artists express themselves via disproportionate characters who are often both sinister and ludicrous. Eschewing extended dialogue for physical expression, the film relies on a stylised atmosphere and palette.

The distorted characters bring a sometimes understated humour, which pervades the film. Elegantly combining sadness with ludicrous slapstick, comedy becomes part of the fabric of the film’s world. A quite real meanness is necessary to this tone, which shows the assorted oddballs as charismatic but downtrodden individuals.

The fantasy in Les Triplettes de Bellville comes in the form of its ramshackle peculiarity. There’s an accidental quality to the unbelievable which keeps it in key with the gentle pathos evident throughout. With the story retaining a simple focus the assorted quirks become the heart of the experience.

Rather like the story, the lead character (the grandmother) slogs on with a self-possessed confidence. The pace feels crafted to better express the ambience right up until the final sequences. When the film does near the conclusion this composed progress is rapidly and wonderfully accelerated. In perhaps the best scenes of all this previously saturnine comedy flies into a sublimely farcical chase scene.

The real triumph of Les Triplettes de Belleville is the manner in which it contains its clowning impulses. The skilfully controlled narrative immerses the viewer in a poignant and funny alternative world, the visual surrealism easily melded into the tale. Yet, for all that it is based in an aesthetic charm, it’s a film which succeeds as a comedy – and it’s that which makes it enjoyable as well as visually charming.

Thomas Miller