Les Triplettes De Belleville

[rebirth]

don't worry mods...I"m not asking for it... I've seen it and am asking an opinion...

OK, well... I saw The Triplets of Belleville (which was nominated for an oscar...but won over by Nemo) and I think it deserved the oscar. I think it is one of the funniest and most poignant movies I have ever seen. It totally rocks and I would recommend seeing it.

and, if you have seen it...What did you think of it? Did you like it? Did you think it was racist?

cmon...I want all y'all to come outta tha woodwork on this one

[RobinSena]

I don't think that it deserved the Oscar over Nemo, but it was one of the more interesting movies of the year, even with the little dialogue involved. I enjoyed the songs featured in the movie as well - i actually got the soundtrack (my first music purchase in a while!!) and it features some good music, especially the many versions of the title song Belleville Rendezvous, which quickly became one of my favorite songs.
As for the movie being racist, i don't think it was as there was many shots towards French pop culture as well. And as for making all of the Americans fat in the movie, i wouldn't call that racist - WE ARE FAT!!, well, at least most are.

Overall, i would give the move 3 or 3 and a half stars.

[rebirth]

well..it was interesting...and I love the fact that you can totally understand the entire movie...even if you were to see it fully in french, like I did, without subtitles. The movie's director is french and his wife is british. They purposely made the movie point out the racial stereotpypes of the french for americans (fat, hamburger loving, lavishly-living), the americans for the french (eccentric, poor, cigarette-loving, skinny, and quiet), the world for italians (the barbershop mouseman), and the world of the portuguese (the grandmother, just fat, caring, and misshapen)

[rebirth]

hey, Robin...why do you think Nemo deserved the Oscar over TOB ?

[RobinSena]

Though the movie was very poignant as you mentioned, the story line was somewhat strange to me (Maybe I'm just used to American films though!), and although the plot for Nemo was a bit trite, it was handled well which makes it remeniscent of the golden years of Disney (Before Eisner) when they put much thought into their animations (Pinnochio, Beauty and the Beast) which are sure to live on forever in movie history.

As to why the Oscar voters didn't feel the same way about Belleville the way you did, i think it's because most Americans are a bit ETHNOCENTRIC and don't understand the views of other cultures the way you seem to know them, and probably would have needed someone to point out the stereotypes in the movie to them who is a bit more culture-wise, which they obviously didn't have.

Also, Disney is a very American corporation which movie goers and Oscar voters alike are accustomed to from child-hood and are more likely to lean to in terms of movie taste.

[rebirth]

true true...though...I did love nemo...oh well...what has America gone to, eh? ;)

[shawners]

i havent heard it or seen it.. Is it an animation or what?

[rebirth]

yes it's an Anim. It's awesome tho...one of the best ever I would say...really awesome animation, even some CG.

[rebirth]

if you watched the Oscars it was nominated for best original song "Belleville Rendezvous," which was performed there; and nominated for best animated feature film...it's nomination clip was one of the three triplets (in their 70s) dancing and singing with Madame Souza accompaning on a bike rim.

[ThePillarOfAutumn]

If you have no idea what this movie is - watch the trailer - here is the link

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/thetripletsofbellville.html

[rebirth]

ah, ty pillar

[rebirth]

weird, fast paced...stange trailer...doesn't have the calm and lightheartedness the movie does

[ThePillarOfAutumn]

havent seen the movie myself but i love checking out the trailers at the apple website - its prety cool when iam really bored - and i see many movies that i never knew about on thier..

here is the link to thier main page

http://www.apple.com/trailers/

[rebirth]

This Was Not Meant To Be A Three/four Person Thread!!! Grr! Speak!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[rebirth]

Pweeeze!?

blah

[collideous]

I have seen the trailer a dozen times at the movies, but I'll wait to rent the DVD on this one. There are just too many other movies I want to see first. Just saw "The Barbarian Invasions" on Friday. "The Fog of War" might be next.

[libra4]

Hi Rebirth,

I am new to this forum, which I found doing a Google Search on "Triplets of Belleville" and "racism" - so here I am.

A friend of mine recently told me that she was hesitant to see this film because another friend warned her that it has racist content that she would likely have problems with (namely the Josephine Baker scene). I saw the film twice, I felt uncomfortable with this scene, thought about it, and concluded that I did not consider the film racist. The filmaker was depicting the Paris stage in the 1930's. He placed this era using several known performers of that time, not only Josephine Baker. He depicted her doing one of her most famous performances; though we might be offended by the connotations today, she did dance on stage in a skirt made of bananas, and danced in a style that could be called "tribal". She did her own choreography. Yes, the audiences were titillated - and, she made a fortune and remains famous today. She was often cast as a "primitive" in her film roles, which we would also challenge today, but was the filmaker racist to have shown her act as it performed, and to show how it was perceived and responded to at that time? I don't think so. Now, the filmaker did not insert any moralising on any of this - that could raise some questions, but I, personally, was fine with his choice.

Also, I think this movie was robbed of an Oscar. I rented Finding Nemo the night before the awards, and almost turned it off halfway through.

[IHATEJIMMYPAGE]

Yeah, I saw it, it was really awesome, entertaining, and i especially loved the tone/colours and cultural charachtacures ( no f-ing clue how to spell that) , I do think Nemo just flowed better though, and the CGI was brilliant (not that triplets's animation wasn't)....wasn't TOB nominated for more than one oscar though?...I think it deserved the oscar for best original song, over LOTR, but it was LOTR's night...

[IHATEJIMMYPAGE]

oh and @ collideous, I saw Fog of War, and it was very very well done, not entertaining like Bowling for Columbine, but informinative none the less, well worth the 10 bucks it cost to see when i went to NYC...speaking of foreign films...City of God is nothing short of amazing...nominated for oscars the last 2 years i beleve....isn't that something new?

[Mels_Smileys45]

I "looked" this film up also and found it to be really good. I would recomend it. Thanks for bringing to my attention as I had never heard of it before.