Les Triplettes de Belleville

Well I only ate frogs once and I can't say I was too impressed. Fortunately they had been well-soaked in garlic so I didn't find them too revolting. After last night's viewing I don't think I'll ever eat one again. I am reminded of that old joke about the man in the French restaurant “Do you have Frog's legs?”
“Mais oui, monsieur”
“Then hop over the bar and get me a drink”.
Boom boom.

Quite a lot of our regulars didn't turn up for last night's film. Perhaps they don't like animations? Or maybe they'd seen that one before – it has been on TV a couple of times. Or maybe it's the light nights? Holidays? We'd be interested to know why you weren't there so please add a comment.

I think this was one of the best films we've shown this year –  at least as good as L'Illusioniste, last year's animation by the same director – although it was scored much lower at 74%. What sort of mind can think up stuff like betting on a cycle to the death race? And make it funny? Not to mention the frog business. Using a dog as a spare tyre? Brilliantly bizarre.

It was good to see quite a few young faces.  Apparently some students came along to brush up on their French. I suspect they were disappointed as there was very little dialogue – and we did get an unusually high number of uncommented poor feedback ratings.

Your comments:

A
A
A	Absolutely brilliant – fantastic animation – bizarre story – loved it.
A	Wonderful animation! Worthy of the country that gave the world the 2CV
A	Very unusual – I don't usually come for animations
A	Formidable! Original, witty, excellent soundtrack.
A	Better than the original Belleville Rendez-vous. Great fun and great music.
A	That was phenomenally grand! Never seen anything quite like it! Thanks Sue!
A	Absolutely wonderful. Fascinating. Amusing and grotesque!
A	Wonderful.
B	What a treat! - Idiosyncratic, charming, funny
B	Wonderful animation. Very subtle story. Would happily see it again.
B
B
B
B
C	Amazing animation & music but not really my sort of thing.
C	Wonderful artwork, crazily told story. Not something I would usually watch which is a good thing
C
C
C
C
C
D	Some clever touches but bizarre!
D
D
D
D
D

On-line:
IMDB user rating 7.7 out of 10:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0286244/

Rotten Tomatoes – very high audience rating 88%:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_triplets_of_belleville/

Reviewed for the BBC by Tom Dawson “What's French for don't miss?”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/08/06/belleville_rendezvous_2003_review.shtml

Philip French in The Observer “This glorious French animation is an antidote to Hollywood's bland, computer-generated movies”
http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Critic_Review/Observer_review/0,,1032657,00.html

Any French GCSE students might appreciate this link to the TES to download a workbook based on the film...
http://www.tes.co.uk/ResourceDetail.aspx?storyCode=6301714