An animated buzz at Cannes over ‘Belleville Rendez-Vous’

“Belleville Rendez-Vous” represents another country heard from in the expanding world of feature-length animation. Directed by Sylvain Chomet, a Frenchman living in Montreal, it has a distinctly European sensibility that comes from its writer-director’s background in bande dessine, the French tradition of visually inventive, book-length, hard-cover comic books.

Although it’s not in competition, the film has been one of the most popular in the entire festival. The critic for Nice-Matin newspaper, for instance, wrote, “It’s the most inventive, the most droll, the best-directed film and it’s not in competition? Scandale!”

“Belleville” tells the story of a Tour de France bicycle rider named Champion, with calves bigger than his waist. He is kidnapped by nefarious forces, leaving it to his indomitable, club-footed grandmother, Madame Souza; his dog, Bruno; and an ancient singing group called Les Triplets de Belleville (the film’s French title) to try to save him. Told without dialogue but with lots of music and sound effects, it manages to create emotion as well as humor.

“ ‘Animation’ has the word ‘anima,’ soul, in it, and for me these are real characters, they exist somewhere,” Chomet says. “To bring these drawings to life, it’s one of the most wonderful things that can happen in your life. It’s magic, like giving birth.”

Asked at the film’s news conference about the possibilities for merchandizing, the director was plainly at a loss. “I didn’t think about that,” he finally replied. “An obese dog, what do you do with that? I don’t like the idea of animation as a means to sell toys. And I can’t imagine Madame Souza at a McDonald’s counter.”