Animation on the silver screen is very rarely the product of anyone other than Disney or Don Bluth and is typically either about something cute and cuddly or brave and heroic. The more original offerings are typically consigned to art house cinemas and missed by just about everyone, which, as a cinematic heathen myself, I can only imagine to be a shame.

So what’s the deal at the moment? Not only do we have the academy award winning ‘Spirited Away’ showing at the local Odeon, but also Sylvian Chomet’s sinister comedy ‘Belleville Rendez-vous’. And on top of that we have the soundtrack by Canadian guitarist Ben Charest, a jazz score so intensely French and art deco that it can only be followed by a world war.

The film is very funny. Not side splitting or rib tickling, more the kind of funny that has you nodding and chuckling in a knowing way because you are clever and so is the film. It tells the surreal story of Madame Souza and her cyclist grandson, Champion, who is kidnapped by the mafia of Belleville, a garish and macabre place where sinister things are ‘à pied’. Assisted by her faithful hound and the aging but talented performing Triplets of Bellville, Madame Souza hatches a cunning plot to rescue her beloved but vacant young relative. The resultant hour and a half is a runaway success, blending animation styles, fantastic story telling and a dialogue-substituting soundtrack that does its job magnificently. From the prostrate servile waiter to the cigarette hanging off the lips of an elderly mechanic, the French details are delectably witty (sorry, but this is cinema so I’m allowed to say that) and the overall effect is ‘incroyable’ (and that).

If you like a bit of jazz with your animated masterpieces then the CD of the film is a must buy, not least because it features someone playing a vacuum cleaner. All too often the soundtracks of films don’t lend themselves to commercial distribution unless there is a strong musical element to the film. The music in a film is there to enhance mood and so often the CD turns out to be a covered song followed by a collection of cuts with little or no connection (notable exceptions including ‘Flash Gordon’, The ‘Blues Brothers’ and ‘Paris, Texas’). In the case of ‘Belleville Rendez-Vous’, a film big on visuals but small on chat, the musical score is of paramount importance and subsequently the CD is a collection of full-length pieces of music. Charest bases the score round the film’s theme song ‘Belleville Rendez-vous’ performed by cult French artist - M - (aka Matthieu Chedid). This song is the signature tune of ex-flappers, the Triplets of Belleville and so it enjoys three re-mixes, including an English language version at the end. ‘Atila Marcel’ is a piece of music very much in the style of Edith Piaf, with strong, forceful vocals alongside a lazy accordion. ‘Cabaret Hoover’, inspired by Charest’s vacuum cleaner experiments, is improvisation that would make the performers of Stomp jealous whilst ‘Bach à la Jazz’, as you can guess, is a jazz inspired take on a real classic.

With rasping trumpets, skat vocals, dextrous guitars and smooth clarinets all over it, the soundtrack is a faithful representation of the shifting moods of the film whilst at the same time being independent enough to enjoy as a separate entity. Between them, director Sylvian Chomet’s and composer Ben Charest have created a black comedy that can be enjoyed by just about anybody for one reason or another. Go and see ‘Belleville Rendez-Vous’ in the cinema for full effect. Or possibly wait until Channel 4 show it at Christmas time. Either way, it will be worth it.

words: Robin Harris

View the rather fab Belleville Rendez - Vous Website here