Triplets of Belleville: Accentuated Exaggeration at its Finest

To begin to describe Sylvain Chomet's Triplets of Belleville is an almost impossible feat. The activity in the film, regarding the animation, pacing, humor, and narrative, comes off in a titanic spectrum of impressions. It has a certain kaleidoscopic absurdity but retains some very touching human elements due to its simplicity in certain scenes. Before I try to describe the later narrative events, I want to first look at the second scene that involves the grandmother and Champion, since it is a far more gentler approach to the characters and motivations. The grandmother, through her silent determination, pushes her grandson to continue riding his bike in training for the Tour de France. Yet, this scene is propelled by the dog, Bruno, waiting for them at home. Over the years, a train track has found its way alongside the side of the house such that the dog stumbles up to the top floor to bark at all the passing trains. The dog waits for its owners, for attention and for food. The pacing of the scene is appropriate, slow and desperate. What culminates is a moment of humanity living at the speed of life, until the film explodes into feverish chaos and brilliant wickedness.

When Champion gets kidnapped by French mob men, the grandmother and Bruno follow them to Belleville, which seems to reflect New York City, except much bigger, in more ways than one...maybe a comment or two about American obesity? The duo meets up with three old women, who introduce themselves in a quirky and inventive song; they are the Triplets of Belleville, once stars during the Jazz Age. A slew of compellingly eccentric characters populate the film and through them a sense of insincerity as well as a unique style is evoked; it works because the film makes no stance in undermining it. It doesn't need to. Instead, it takes us along for the ride, offering us a chance to observe a world exceedingly exaggerated and darkly comedic.

In animation...for lack of a better way to construct this observation...animation is crucial in expressing certain elevated emotions; the medium of animation allows for certain exaggeration that amplifies a specific feeling or characteristic. There is a snobbish waiter in a underground yet high-end nightclub who seems to moving within the space as an obnoxious contortionist, complete with a rather stupid smile and a way with using his arms. Watching him move from table to table was hilarious and it fits so well because the world around him is just as ludicrous. Like the brilliant debut film of Miyazaki, Castle of Cagliostro, Triplets seems to distort physicality and the rest of reality because, through animation, it can do just that. Chomet has fun doing this nonstop in this film.

What also surprised me was the fluid transitions between dimensions in this film. In a lot of animations, 2D dominated animated feature specifically, there are attempts to implement three-dimensionality in certain scene to amplify visualizations and feelings, sometimes with awkward results. The animation seems to transition between 2D and 3D seamlessly and diversifies the strange world we witness. The ending sequence, which involves a rather stupendous chase, is a solid case for this facet, as the characters run through the maze-like streets the camera shifts in dimensionality to expose all the action and tension that is needed to maximize enjoyment, and it succeeds.

Triplets of Belleville is an animated film with a strong sense of weirdness, notwithstanding hints of grossness, rhythm (the music is superb), and pride. It's rare to find a film with this much imagination as well as an uncanny ability to sucker punch you in the face. In the States, we have South Park and Family Guy  as the closest but I find them inadequate compared to the world of Sylvain Chomet. Chomet's most recent work was the heartfelt film, The Illusionsit, a realization from the late Jaques Tati, which has its strangeness, just not as flamboyant as this film. I left this film with an eerie sense of motivation...maybe it was because of the music...I don't really know. It's hard to really know anything after watching that film.