Premise: Film Review - Belleville Rendez-Vous

Figure 1 Poster Rubber Hose style

Belleville Rendez-Vous directed by Sylvain Chomet (2003) is an animation that feels very french with the animation at the start of the film using rubber hose animation (also known as inkblot animation) which is an exaggerated technique which developed and gained recognition in the late 1920's. Bill Nolan was known as the master of perfecting rubber hose animation with his creation "Felix The Cat" . Rubber hose animation is unique in that it shows the limbs being made of simple curves which exaggerate the motion of the characters. A lot of the films that started rubber hose animation were silent films and had a lot of dance sequences in them which made sense for the characters to have loose spaghetti like limbs and this reflect the opening sequence of Belleville Rendez-Vous.


The rubber hose animation is used at the start of the film to represent a flashback. For the rest of the film the background and environments are extremely detailed and illustrative with bric a brac trinkets being cluttered into the homes of the whimsical characters (figure 2).

Figure 2: Interior showing Bric a Brac Clutter

The film uses a very stylistic approach with strong lines and warm hues (Figure 3)  which look as if it was created with watercolour and the animation as a whole utilises traditional cell animation techniques with Chomet stating that he prefers drawing as the idea of 3D animation terrifies him. In an interview with animation world network Chomet states " Its drawing that interests me. 3D terrifies me. The idea that, in plasticine, one of your characters might melt, or that you might have to start all over again from scratch because you've knocked against the edge of the table thats not for me. If I don't like a drawing, I simply tear it up and start again. Computer 3D doesn't interest me; I like a pencil and a piece of paper" (Chomet, 2003)

Figure 3: Warm Hues In Environment

The character and environment design is interesting when it comes to how it depicts America as the civilians look morbidly obese with the statue of liberty holding a cheeseburger and an ice cream cone (figure 4) albeit it works because the singing triplets are also made fun of for being stereotypically french with their tastebuds having an affinity for only frogs.

The plot boils down to an espionage chase as the son named Champion at a young age becomes enthralled with the bicycle his Grandmother (Madame Souza) gifted him decides to take part in the tour de France. The espionage goons then take captive of the tour de France Cyclists and house them in a massive ship to perform for them like monkeys as they cycle against a backdrop while punters bet on who will win. Madame Souza then forms a crew with the signing triplets and Bruno-Champions dog to take down the thugs and rescue Champion.

Figure 4: The Obese Statue Of Liberty 

The fact that the movie is silent apart from musical numbers meant that Chomet had to make the character design very strong to emote their feelings through their motion alone. Speaking of his choice to use non verbal storytelling Chomet describes "I think that an animation without the constraints of spoken words is stronger. If you have to fit everything to the words, all the gestural movement revolves around the mouth. Without it, you are much freer to create true animation, to talk through animation itself. Animation modeled around the dialogue is like something, which has already been set in stone, theres less scope for interpretation. I have always wanted the animators to bring something to it" (Chomet 2003)

Each one of the characters in Belleville Rendez-Vous have unique quirks with their design which hints at how they are as a person. The Grandmother is a short stubby club footed woman who has one shoe that is higher than the other, The three Belevinne sisters are lanky and gangly with droopy eyelids and the waiter which is probably the most significant impact of character design literally shows him swooping bending over backwards (figure 5)  when weighting the table for the espionage entourage while The espionage goons have massive square shoulders. Tom Dawson describes "Rendez-Vous a deliberately antiquated visual style, and Chomet relishes caricaturing the body shapes of his characters - whether it's the overly muscular thighs and protuberant nose of Champion, or the grotesquely obese residents of Belleville" (Dawson 2003)

Figure 5: The waiter

With a budget of 9.5 million and making 14.8 million at the box office Belleville Rendez-Vous has been critically acclaimed.  The film earned a nomination for the 76th Academy Award 2004 for best animation feature (missing out to Finding Nemo) and another nomination for best original song with "Belleville Rendez-vous"

Bibliography

Dawson, T. (2003). BBC - Films - review - Belleville Rendez-Vous. [online] Bbc.co.uk. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2003/08/06/belleville_rendezvous_2003_review.shtml [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].

 Henderson, S., Wood, A., Mitchell, B. and Dutton, S. (2015). Belleville Rendez-Vous! DVD release review - Skwigly Animation Magazine. [online] Skwigly Animation Magazine. Available at: http://www.skwigly.co.uk/belleville-rendez-vous-dvd-release-review/?_sf_s=Belleville+Rendez-Vous [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].

Moins, P. (2003). Sylvain Chomet’s 'The Triplets of Belleville'. [online] Animation World Network. Available at: https://www.awn.com/animationworld/sylvain-chomet-s-triplets-belleville [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].


Illustration List

Chomet, S. (2003). [image] Available at: https://aeb85937.wordpress.com/tag/waltz-with-bashir/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2018].

Chomet, S. (2013). [image] Available at: https://seattlescreenscene.com/2015/05/08/the-triplets-of-belleville-sylvain-chomet-2003/ [Accessed 12 Feb. 2018].

Chomet, S. (2003). [image] Available at: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2004/04/20/the-triplets-of-belleville [Accessed 12 Feb. 2018].