The Triplets of Belleville
Directed by Sylvain Chomet
- animation
- comedy
- drama
- adventure
The story
When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.
What it’s like
Hand-drawn and deliberately old-fashioned, with soft pencil-like linework, washed-out ochres and greys, and a jazz-age tilt to every surface: rain-slick Parisian and Belleville streets, cramped apartments stuffed with clutter, a sea that glints like tin. Long, mostly static shots let gags unfold at their own pace, and the camera drifts in on faces with a tender, almost wordless patience. Dialogue is sparse, so the score does most of the talking: 1930s-style swing, accordion waltzes, and the Sisters' rhythmic clatter of household objects, with long stretches of near silence where only rain and clockwork creak. The vibe is wry, bittersweet and quietly absurd, best for a rainy Sunday, a slow evening alone, or a gentle comfort rewatch. Its comedy is slapstick and mostly bloodless, though there are brief moments of menace involving a sinister mafia and a grim, pursued chase, with violence kept cartoonish and largely off-screen. The emotional arc follows a devoted, stubborn old woman who refuses to give up on the people she loves, and the film is for people who enjoy melancholy, observational humour and a film that trusts silence.
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