Belleville
rendez-vous Flashing back to the roaring twenties, the opening scene displays all the decadence of the time in a wacky and wonderful dance performance. From the start, the realization that this isn't just another Disney animation is abundantly clear. In its own strange and idiosyncratic way this film pokes fun at just about everything, and in so doing leads the viewer on an unexpected journey. The
film follows a young boy, a grandmother and a dog called Bruno through
the boy's aspirations and accomplishments of a becoming a cyclist,
leading to one gruelling stage of the Tour de France where he is mysteriously
kidnapped by gangsters. We then travel to a fictional metropolis -
which vaguely resembles New York, Montreal, and the Tower of Babylon
- where his grandmother and the dog attempt to rescue him. The richness
of the film does not come in the form of plot or dialogue - there
is hardly any of that - but from the engaging characters, the entertaining
caricatures, and the bizarre way it all fits together. With so many different motifs and critiques ranging from politics to religion and French culture, this film could be enjoyed as an interesting perspective on the destructive and inhuman forces of capitalism - or just as a weird and comical night out. What ever you think of it though, I can guarantee you have never seen anything like this before. Simon Whittle |