Film Review: Belleville Rendez-vous

This French film (directed by Sylvain Chomet) has always roused my curiosity. The animation style reminded me of the kind of art work that was always on late night Channel Four programs in the early nineties (I seem to remember an program called Animation Now). It was different, exaggerated and comic. There were even some ventures into an entirely different style for the occasional interstice. This widely-respected film, however, didn't quite sit well with me. There were parts of it that disgusted me on some level, the buttock-like calf muscles that made me grimace each time I looked, the disgusting meal the characters ate consisting of stewed frogs, the excessively obese pet dog - all grotesque. I think it's perhaps just me looking subjectively, rather than with a critic's eye, but occasionally animation makes me feel ill (Fritz the cat did similar). It may be some deep-seated psychological issue I have with abstraction of human physiology, but it's not something I'm interested in exploring; I'd rather just turn a blind eye. So I cut this film short, partly for the above reason, or perhaps instigated by the above, but also because it was boring. I'm no expert in animation, but I'm not sure what was so great about this - the exaggeration of physical characteristics? But isn't that what most art does. In conclusion, I cannot recommend this film, however iconic the scenes of the protagonists climbing a near-vertical hill may be.