The Triplets of Belleville (1 Viewer)

[Nick Pudar]

I started watching this intruiging film last night to check its suitability for family viewing and have a few questions.

1. The case says that the film is 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, but the film started with a banner that said "This film has been modified to fit your screen." What was the original aspect ratio? Or was this banner a mistake?

If it was 2.35:1 and someone did a pan and scan so that my widescreen TV doesn't have black bars, I'll be very disappointed with Sony.

2. The film starts with English (singers and grandmother's voice), but later when the Tour de France started, the radio and television voice-overs were in French. I decided to check the Spanish audio track and discovered that the radio and television voice-overs were in Spanish. Is this an error? It sure seems like the English track ought to be there, but it's not. Does anyone have any insider info on this one?

Really great film so far... I've got to finish it soon.

Thanks,
Nick

 

[Malcolm R]

Click for several pages of discussion in the already-existing thread.

 

[Nick Pudar]

Malcolm,
Thanks, I really thought I did a search, but didn't see it.
Nick

 

[RobertSiegel]

I am not sure what the original aspect ratio was. I LOVE this film, great animation, story, script, and most of all music. I really think this song deserved the Academy Award over Eminem's rap.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Basically, and this is discussed more fully in the thread mentioned above, the original aspect ratio was 1.65:1, modified to 1.78:1.

The soundtrack is as it should be. I saw it in cinema, and there were a couple of lines in the film that were in English, but most were either in French, or French-sounding gibberish - I've heard both claimed. It definitely works without understanding the language - the entire film is told visually, and the "dialogue" is really just a placeholder to get across the idea of people talking, and the actual content of the dialogue doesn't really matter.

Wrong year - "Lose Yourself" won in 2003. "Belleville Rendez-vous" lost in 2004, to "Into the West" from LOTR.

 

[RobertSiegel]

OOps, you're right....The year Eminem won I had hoped the song from Chicago would have won. Thanks! Still feel Belleville's theme was more original and better than the other nominees.

 

[Ray H]

The year Eminem won, I was hoping "The Hands That Built America" from Gangs of New York would win. The year Triplets of Belleville lost, I was hoping "A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow" from A Mighty Wind would win.

Anyway, pretty good movie. But I didn't like it too much. It just felt like nothing happened for the first hour.

 

[RobertSiegel]

I know I'll be dating myself with this post, but has anyone else heard the Eminem song that won the Academy Award that we're talking about here? It seems to me the Academy was making a statement about being "with the times" because every other songs was better, a real song. Of course, the younger generation will call Eminems songs real music and the others junk. But I was shocked at the award personally. We had Kander and Ebb that year.

As for Triplettes, it is true the movie was slower in the first hour, but what it had going for it was the unique animation and way of storytelling that, to me, didn't need alot to happen. I was fascinated for the entire film.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Personally, much as I dislike Eminem (and I really do), I think of the five nominees, he deserved to win. Lose Yourself is the only time I have listened to Eminem and thought "Yes, I get his popularity". The only other song in the category that even came close was the Chicago song - the rest had big names slumming it with truly awful songs (Paul Simon writing that ghastly ting for the Thornberrys movie? Ugh!)

Personally, I think the best song of that year was Gollum's Song - a song that fascinates me more and more each time I listen to it, and easily the best of the LOTR songs. But it was the only one not even nominated. (That's what happens when you get someone no-one has heard of, like Emiliana Torrini, to sing your song, instead of ENya or Annie Lennox).

Yes, Belleville Rendez-vous should have won, or A Kiss At The End Of The Rainbow - but the Oscars are always wrong.

 

[RyanAn]

A Mighty Wind was early 2003, not 2004. But still great nonetheless.

Ryan

 

[Ray H]

A Mighty Wind was released in 2003 so it still competed in the 2004 Oscars.