Dir: Sylvain Chomet. Starring: Jean-Claude Donda, Michel Robin, Monica Viegas.
Now this was always going to be a hard sell. For Belleview Rendezvous is an adult animated feature which was made in Belgium and features hardly any dialogue – and that which is there is a mixture of French and English. So I’m guessing right now you’re about to close this page down and read something else instead, but stop. Please. For Belleview Rendezvous is one of the finest animated features that has been made in the last decade and you really shouldn’t miss out on it.
So what makes Belleville Rendezvous so special? Well the film's sense of style is it's strongest point. The animation is a mix of 2d and cgi, but it’s seamlessly done, always beautifully animated, and the detail is amazing as well. It has it’s own unique style, at times cartoonish and at other times extremely arty, but it all fits together shockingly well to make a film which will leave an impression on you long after you’ve watched it.
The story follows Champion, a young child who's adopted by his grandmother but constantly miserable, even buying him a young puppy, Bruno, fails to help, until she buys him his first bicycle. The film flashes forward ten odd years then to Champion taking part in the Tour De France, but just as you start wondering if things are ever going to develop, he's kidnapped by the French mafia with two other competitors, taken to Belleville (a thinly veiled take on America, and forced to cycle against a cinematic backdrop whilst others gamble on who will drop from exhaustion last. Fortunately for Champion, his grandmother has travelled to Belleview along with Bruno, and plans to find and then save him.
So as you might be able to tell, Belleview Rendezvous has got an incredibly strange but very smart sense of humour about it too. There’s so much in the detail and background which will make you smirk, but it’s the bizarre collection of characters and moments that will really make you laugh. From a 30's dance troupe blowing up frogs and then eating them, to Bruno's obsession with barking at trains (which allows for a marvellous slowed down sequence from the train passengers point of view) to the mafia’s evil plan, somehow all of this mixed together has produced a rather marvellous flick, and one that’s very unpredictable too.
It’s a little on the flimsy side occasionally, and some of the satire is a little too obvious (hey, nearly everyone in America is ridiculously huge / greedy) and for a 77 minute film it is occasionally a little slow, but there's so much to enjoy visually that by the end of the film you'll have forgotten these minor moot points. And what an ending it is too - a stunningly animated chase screen through the streets of Belleville that outdoes the majority of live action Blockbuster flicks.
So if you're in the mood for challenging but oh so rewarding cinema, despite how it may sound, Belleview Rendezvous is the perfect starter for you.
Alex Finch.
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