28.05.24, 20:30, Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003)
Madame Souza tries very hard to cheer up her melancholy grandson Champion. She gives him a dog, a train set, but nothing helps. In the end, she gives Champion a gift she will later come to regret: a beautiful tricycle. Champion starts cycling obsessively and when he competes in the Tour de France years later, he is kidnapped. Madame Souza anxiously searches for her darling, and is assisted in this by the Triplettes de Belleville, a bygone pop group from the days of Fred Astaire.
The plot swings around wildly, but that is not why Les Triplettes de Belleville is worth watching. If Jacques Tati had directed Finding Nemo (2003), it would have looked like this. In this beautifully simplistic world of bicycles and eating frog's legs, it is impossible not to become amoureux at the simple but layered characters that director Sylvain Chomet manages to portray. Whether it is Madame Souza's soft potato face or the wacky Champion powered by his ham-thick thighs, you will leave the cinema with a warm feeling.
French & Portuguese spoken, English subtitles
i.c.w. Film-Plateau
Cloquet
Godshuizenlaan 4
9000 Gent