1
Madame Souza’s Casa Portuguesa in France: The Portuguese Element in Sylvain
Chomet’s Multicultural, Animated Film, Les Triplettes de Belleville (2003).
(D r a f t 1-30-07)
The charming, hilarious, satirical, engagé (committed to action) film, Les
Triplettes de Belleville, appeared in France in June 2003, the product of the mind of
director and master cartoonist Syvain Chomet with the support of producer Didier
Brunner of Les Armateurs. The film received many awards in Europe and South
America, including that of Sélection Spéciale at Cannes. In 2004 Triplettes garnered two
Academy Award nominations, one for Best Animated Feature, and another for Best
Original Song. The MPAA justified a PG 13 rating by citing “images involving
sensuality, violence and crude humor.” 1
Chomet’s animated, filmed bande dessinée (comic strip), Les Triplettes de
Belleville, contains clever allusions to cultural and historical personalities and events. The
significant allusions have been identified in numerous reviews and interviews either
posted on the web2 or printed in scholarly, more traditional format.3 Previous
commentary has focused on varied elements in the film, especially its uniquely French
quality, one that combines great originality, art, and social satire with the topic of
transgenerational child rearing. However, there remain some important aspects of Les
Triplettes that are in need of further elucidation. The present article attempts to remedy
those lacunae. Mr. Chomet declared in an interview with Philippe Moins that the basic
principle of his animation must be something very intellectual rather than of purely
commercial value.4 What are the implications of such a serious purpose in Chomet’s
handling of multicultural, pluricultural issues in this cartoon?
Previous studies concerning the Triplettes de Belleville do not dedicate adequate
attention to the important Portuguese element in it. The principal character portrayed in
2
the film, Madame Souza, is a Portuguese grandmother living in France, one not entirely
assimilated. As we shall note further on, her home outside Paris is filled with Portuguese
art objects, permanent reminders of her terra natal.5 In selecting a main character, why
did Chomet choose to caricature a Portuguese immigrant? For the French, what is the
image or stereotype of Portuguese immigrants in France during the 1960’s and 1970’s?
The other main character in the film, Madame Souza’s hapless, orphaned
grandson, Champion, whose parents must have met a tragic demise, exhibits a
mournfully, perennially sad visage throughout. His strong-willed grandmother turns him
into an emasculated neto mimado (spoiled grandson) whose scant accomplishments fall
short of his true potential. Champion’s very name is ironic since he encounters failure as
a cyclist and at life in general, a tragic anti-hero, a “loser” whose life revolves in circles
not unlike the wheels of his bicycle. What can be Chomet’s purpose in depicting such a
character?
For the reader who has not yet viewed the film, it is recommended that you so do.
For everone’s convenience, here is a summary of Les Triplettes de Belleville. The film is
the result of a unique collaboration of French, Belgian and Canadian artists. Many
specifically American, French, French Canadian and Portuguese cultural, historical, and
cinematographic references or scenes are included in the film. Cultural symbols,
stereotypes and icons are found juxtaposed in a humorous, amusing manner. Professor
Jouan-Westlund has observed that this film contains a serious, humanistic satire of the
modern international world, of globalization and exploitation, of the consumerism
characteristic of obese cultures found in so-called “developed” nations.6 In the film there
are obese individuals inhabiting both sides of the Atlantic. The film is almost, but –
3
significantly -- not entirely, silent from the standpoint of spoken dialogue, and subtitles
are not used. However, an important question is spoken at the beginning of Triplettes and
again at the end of the film: Madame Souza inquires of her grandson, Champion, whether
the film has ended. Her words, and Champion’s reply at the conclusion of the movie,
have been dubbed into various languages directed at specific linguistic audiences for
purposes of film distribution. The Region One DVD, NTSC version, distributed in North
America features sound track options in both English and Spanish.7 The reader who is
fluent in languages will find that the film dubbed in Spanish is curiously much easier to
understand than either the version dubbed in English, or the Region 2 DVD, PAL version
originale in French. Sounds, noises and music have very important roles to play in the
Triplettes. A comparison may be made to the films of the 1950’s by French comedian
Jacques Tatii, such as Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot.
At the beginning of the film the initial credits to the producer and to various
agencies and governments that assisted with crucial funding are identified and
superimposed in sequence centered on the cartoon image of an old, vaudeville stage, over
which we perceive the words “Belleville Cartoune.” The careful viewer will also notice
below the stage the inclusion of Einstein’s principal field theory equation demonstrating
the curvature of space and time, including the relationship of gravitational forces and
matter in the universe!8 Rather than some arcane, intellectual joke inserted by a frustrated
cartoonist who originally perhaps had tried to major in physics, an important dimension
at once scientific yet also metaphysical, of cosmic proportions -- extension in space and
time -- is introduced thereby. Like the space-time curvature demonstrated by Einstein’s
ingenious formula, which has been confirmed by scientific observations, the destiny of
4
Chomet’s characters invariably involve circular, cyclical motions, -- just as do our own
lives – an unavoidable contingency of the universal, human condition.
Various extremely obese persons, mainly women, are shown entering the
Belleville Theatre where they attend a Parisian vaudeville show of the inter-war period.
The scratchy, old film in black and white continues with a vocal performance of Ben
Charest’s song, Belleville Rendez-Vous, sung by the youthful Triplettes de Belleville.
Next, Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhard effortlessly demonstrates his virtuosity by playing
his guitar’s struts with one of his feet. This performance is followed by black American
expatriate Josephine Baker who dances nearly in the nude, wearing only bananas around
her waist. Such a sight incites the males in the audience, transformed into ravenous
monkeys, to rush onto the stage, to interrupt her performance, and to consume the banana
costume of the terrified Josephine.9 Flawless dancer Fred Astaire’s act is fatally
interrupted when he loses his tap dancing shoes that, transformed into hungry teeth,
attack him fiercely and drag him -- tongue extended, eyes closed -- offstage, apparently to
complete their meal. The fou chantant (crazy singer) as the composer of the lovely song
La Mer, Charles Trenet, is known by the French, directs the orchestra. The film breaks
and we discover to our surprise that the nostalgic film from yesteryear that we had been
watching, is actually a film appearing on the petit écran (small screen) of a 1950’s
television set located in the cluttered home of Madame Souza, a clubfooted, Portuguese
immigrant to France, who lives with her pre-adolescent grandson, Champion.
The Souza’s modest, working-class home is located in a still unspoiled, rural,
quiet countryside near Paris. In the following sequence, time has quickly passed and we
are at the end of the 1960’s. We are aware of this because not only has an ugly urban
5
sprawl engulfed her home, a jet passenger plane flies overhead where previously only
propeller-driven planes had appeared. Travel by jet airplane was inaugurated in 1958, the
same year that General Charles de Gaulle became the first president of the newly formed
French Fifth Republic. A few minutes later in the film we witness a satire of le Grand
Charles as he holds forth on 1960’s French television in his deliberate, noble, emphatic
manner concerning the importance of the Tour de France.10
Madame Souza, sensitive to her orphaned grandson’s melancholic nature, realizes
that she must find something positive to occupy his time. Following a telecast
performance of celebrated Canadian pianist Glen Gould characteristically hunched over
the piano, she tries unsuccessfully to interest Champion in learning to play the piano. She
manages to cheer him momentarily with the gift of a puppy that grows into a giant but
lovable pet named “Bruno,” the third main character in the film. Bruno’s comic obsession
with food and trains, coupled with the cartoonist’s portrayal of his thoughts and dreams,
is surely one of the memorable highlights of this unusual film. Under Champion’s bed
grandma discovers the child’s hidden scrapbook filled with photos of cycling stars torn
from newspapers, revealing the his interest in competition cycling. Madame Souza’s gift
to Champion of a tricycle and an electric train are met with enthusiasm, time passes, and
she endeavors to transform her grandson into a cycling champion, an authentic
“Champion” true to his name. She enforces a rigorous and hilarious training regimen on
him: her authoritative whistle marks a disciplined cadence while, seated on his old
tricycle, she follows an expressionless Champion on his bicycle over cobble-stoned
streets, up and down impossibly steep hills. Back home Madame Souza massages her
fatigued Champion with a vacuum sweeper, an eggbeater and a lawnmower. Bruno, when
6
not barking at passing trains, has been waiting impatiently all day for the leftovers from
Champion’s meal. Grandma measures Champion’s weight by a silly contraption, as his
consumption of food must be administered very precisely. Sometime around the early
1970’s the young man qualifies for a place in the Tour de France competition; however,
when Champion encounters steep mountains leading to the Col du fémur (!), he falters
and falls far behind, easy prey for kidnaping by mysterious, dark figures from the French
(or French-Canadian) underworld, mafiosi whose capo sports a béret bien basque.
Champion and two additional, luckless, captive cyclists are loaded onto a large ship that
sets out from Marseilles for distant Belleville, an amalgamation of New York, Quebec
and Montreal, on the other side of the Atlantic. The opening, mournful portion from
Mozart’s C minor mass sets an appropriately tragic, somber tone for crossing a stormy
ocean, one of the truly beautiful portions of the film. Rough waters produce seasickness
among the mafiosi, whose backs are shown, in a comic scene, while they make urgent use
of every open porthole available. Madame Souza and Bruno incredibly follow the ship in
a rented, children’s paddle boat all the way to the “New World.” “Belleville” in French
means “beautiful city,” an irony since on close inspection it turns out not to be all that
beautiful or wonderful because everyone living in the polluted, noisy city is fat. A
bloated, distorted Statue of Liberty welcomes the visitors: her uplifted, right arm holds
fast to an ice cream cone, while her left hand and forearm provide safe haven for an
enormous hamburger. The French mafia, whose motto in vino veritas, Latin for, “in wine
there is truth,” are lodged in a skyscraper named the “French Wine Center.” The
prisoners, Champion and two fellow cyclists, continuously doped intravenously with red
wine, are made to peddle their stationary bikes in the center of a well-attended auditorium
7
where illegal betting is going on. Madame Souza and Bruno, are aided by the three
elderly Belleville sisters, the same ones featured in their youthful prime earlier in the
film. They subsist by eating frogs collected after the explosion of a European grenade
(which has a handle like a stick, unlike U.S.-style grenades that are round like baseballs).
Madame Souza and Bruno are hungry, but as she apparently is unable to communicate
with the three sisters in either English or French, she attempts to communicate her
feelings at the piano by playing and singing (she comically cannot really do either) the
beginning words from a popular, old Portuguese song, Uma Casa Portuguesa,
concerning customary hospitality in Portugal. The Triplettes sing their old “Belleville
Rendez-Vous” number while using such improvised musical instruments as a newspaper,
grilles in an old fridge, and a vacuum sweeper. The combined feminine wiles of Madame
Souza, the Triplets, together with Bruno’s fine sense of smell, result in Champion’s
rescue in the parody of a classic, but a very amusing chase sequence – in which the
mafiosi “bad guys” use French Deux Cheveaux sedans to pursue the “good guys.”
Madame Souza and her triplet friends use more feminine wiles and a lot of extremely
good luck to triumph over evil. However, this is only the parody of the typically happy
ending à la Holloywood. Amongst all the funny gags and laughter that the film incites,
on close inspection it also leads the thoughtful viewer to recognize and to reflect upon the
negative, pessimistic downside of “successful” global, capitalist economies wherein
Everyman faces a destiny solely dedicated to excess in virtually all domains, especially to
the possession and craving for more material goods.11
Chomet’s hyperbolized and stereotypical caricature of the principal character,
Madame Souza, is that of a Portuguese immigrant residing in France around fifty years
8
ago. As one should expect in a cartoon, her physical appearance is exaggerated, her
clothing is rather ordinary, she is grossly overweight with du monde au balcon (ample
breasts). Madame Souza has two visible handicaps, a club foot, and her eyesight. She
wears thick, Mr. Magoo-type glasses that she incessantly repositions on her nose with a
hand gesture. Although subject to the physical limitations just enumerated, and most
probably lacking in much education and money, Madame Souza possesses some
admirable personal qualities, above all a stubborn determination to adapt to any situation,
adhering faithfully to the principle that “when life gives you lemons, you make
lemonade!” She evinces almost fanatical devotion to the welfare of her young, orphaned
grandson, Champion, whom she dutifully accepts to raise in the absence of any other
family members. Fortunately for this difficult endeavor the cartoonist has endowed her
with a surprising amount of healthful energy for someone her age. For example, in her
role as Champion’s cycling trainer she incredibly is able to pedal his old tricycle as fast
as her grandson pedals his professional racing bicycle; subsequently she is sturdy enough
to pedal a small paddleboat with Bruno on board across a stormy Atlantic Ocean
destination Belleville. Madame Souza’s seemingly cheerful, optimistic outlook is
demonstrated in the face of adversity. Camped out with Bruno under a bridge in
Belleville, she has built a cozy campfire, and uses a cast-off bicycle wheel to pick out a
popular polka tune from the 50’s à la Lawrence Welk sans accordion. Music means
salvation, as it draws the attention of the elderly Belleville triplets, who kindly provide
shelter for Madame Souza and Bruno in their dismal tenement building apartment. While
a most unusual feast of frogs is under preparation for dinner with yummy tadpoles for
dessert, a famished Souza tries her best to belt out loudly -- but very off key -- the
9
traditional Portuguese song concerning warm Portuguese hospitality, “Uma Casa
Portuguesa,” all the while more or less pounding on the sisters’ old piano. Here are the
words of the song, very appropriate to the occasion:
Numa casa portuguesa fica bem, pão e vinho sobre a mesa.
Quando à porta humildemente bate alguém, senta-se à mesa co’a gente.
Fica bem essa franqueza, fica bem, que o povo nunca a desmente.
A alegria da pobreza, está nesta grande riqueza, de dar, e ficar contente.
Quatro paredes caiadas, um cheirinho de alecrim, …
In a Portuguese home all is fine, (because there is always) bread and wine on the
table. When someone humbly knocks at the door, (that person) is seated at the
table with the rest of us. This warm reception is fine, it is appropriate, and the
people never act otherwise. The happiness of poverty, it resides in this great
richness, to give (out of generosity), and to be happy. Four white-washed walls,
an aroma of rosemary, …
Let us return to France for an insightful tour of Madame Souza’s casa portuguesa
in a foreign land circa late 40’s. An alert observer will find that this humble, workingclass home near Paris is filled with art objects from Portugal.12 There is a typical
Portuguese vase permanently located atop the television set at the start of Les Triplettes
de Belleville. At the conclusion of the film decades later it remains in exactly the same
spot, but on a newer TV set with a larger screen. A similar Portuguese vase sets on a
small round table. Another vase decorated in Portuguese-Chinese style occupies the top
of what appears to be a cabinet designed to store the family’s best china dishes. On a wall
hangs a Portuguese decorative plate, while numerous galos de Barcelos (Portuguese
roosters) predominate on a tablecloth, made of oilcloth more than likely, in a distinctive
pattern from northern Portugal. On still another a cabinet two plates are on display, one
has the word “PORTUGAL” written on it, and the other reads “FATIMA MARIA” to
assure us that this is a good Roman Catholic household. Perhaps “MARIA” refers to
Maria de Fátima, or perhaps Madame Souza’s given name may be Maria. She may have
10
acquired the plate as a souvenir on a visit to the Basílica at Fátima in Portugal. On a shelf
there is a bottle marked “PORTO.” Madame Souza’s abode may physically be in France,
but casa portuguesa it surely is from the standpoint of decorations. There are only a few
authentically French items in the house: just inside the front door there is a doormat
emblazoned with the word “Peugeot” on it, acquired either as a promotional item for an
automobile or a bicycle bearing the “Peugeot” trademark. Probably its origin is related to
cycling, given the family’s apparent obsession with cycling. Champion’s bedroom
upstairs is decorated with memorabilia related to French bicycle racing, and his
scrapbook is filled with photos of cyclists, mostly French, but one can find at least one
Belgian and an Italian. A comic brass likeness of Jacques Tati seated on a brass bicycle
serves as a weathervane perched on the highest gable of the Souza home. Regarding the
unmistakably Portuguese décor in the Souza’s casa portuguesa as just described, where
did French film director Sylvain Chomet acquire so many precise and carefully observed
symbolic referents to a Lusitanian household? In an interview conducted in Montréal
where Chomet has been based since 1993,13 he mentioned that he frequented a
Portuguese restaurant located in the Portuguese quartier of that city, and that experiences
there influenced his decision to depict an elderly Portuguese woman as a protagonist in
his new film.14 It is reasonable to suppose that the Portuguese restaurant was decorated
with Portuguese objets similar to the ones on display in Madame Souza’s house back in
France. One phrase often used in pre-Revoutionary days to refer to the Portuguese was
the trinity of “Fátima, Football, e Fado,”15 referring to an almost fanatical adherence to
religion, Roman Catholicism, to soccer and sports in general, and to typical Portuguese
music. Chomet’s main characters, Madame Souza and Champion, typify at least the
11
second aspect of this stereotype rather well by their evident dedication to the sport of
cycling. Madame Souza’s song introduced earlier, “Uma casa portuguesa,” may be
categorized as fado. The version of this song and others as sung by Amália Rodrigues,
incidentally, are popular among the French.16
Added to the burden of certain real, physical and non-physical hardships and
limitations mentioned earlier, it is important to recognize Madame Souza’s status as an
immigrant from Portugal residing in France forty or fifty years ago within the time frame
shown in the movie. As is typical of the Portuguese who have chosen to reside in France,
she retains a strong sense of her Portuguese identity and origins.17 Her casa portuguesa in
France is just one of very, very many such Portuguese homes in the land of the Gauls. As
background to provide a better understanding of what Madame Souza represents, and to
determine additional reasons why director/cartoonist Chomet may have chosen for his
main character a Portuguese old lady (instead of one belonging to another ethnic,
immigrant minority), let us review what has been the experience of the Portuguese in
France in the past century, and what image the French themselves hold concerning those
thousands of individuals of Portuguese origin now living in their midst.
According to Chomet, Didier Brunner of the production company Les Armateurs
(Shipbuilders) proposed that he make a longer, animated film following the model of his
successful “The Old Lady and the pigeons.”18 When it became clear that it would be too
costly on account of projected royalty payments to use the same old lady from the former
film, he decided to use as a model persons whom he had observed in a Portuguese
restaurant in Montréal, a city where he had been based since 1993, because the
Portuguese possessed a “gentillesse naturelle et ça a fonctionné bien avec ce que je
12
voulais que ce personnage fasse.”19 In the light of these positive words, Chomet’s choice
to portray hyperbolically a clubfooted, stubborn old Portuguese grandmother should be
interpreted as none other than a compliment to the Portuguese in general. The treatment
of ethnic minorities in film these days is a somewhat “touchy” area fraught with potential
problems and pitfalls. Therefore, it may be that Chomet and Brunner consciously
considered the Portuguese minority the least likely to be offended by the rather likeable
and inoffensive caricature visible in Madame Souza. The French these days reportedly
have a rather high opinion of the “invisible” Portuguese immigrant in their midst, 20 and
Mr. Chomet – who is himself French – appears to partake of this view of the Portuguese
wholeheartedly; however, his sympathetic views concerning foreigners may be informed
by his personal experience as an emigrant (to Canada). Portuguese immigrants have not
in the past always been viewed in a such a positive way by the French.21 When and why
did the thousands of persons Madame Souza represents depart Portugal for France?
A Portuguese contingent of soldiers fought with the Allies in France during World
War I22 as certainly those who have visited the commemorative military museum the
tomb of the unknown Portuguese soldier at the Mosteiro de Batalha in Portugal will
recall. About 30,000 former Portuguese soldiers in the 1920’s returned to work in France
for relatively better pay than then available in Portugal.23 The economic crisis of 1929
and the concomitant, diminished availability of jobs resulted in the return of many
Portuguese to their homeland.24 In the 1960’s a rapid modernization and augmented
productivity of French industry was in full expansion, and offered much better paying
jobs than those in Portugal, a veritable “flood” of Portuguese workers, eventually joined
by their families, left their homeland for France.25 The number of Portuguese who
13
emigrated to France in the period 1958-1974 was at least an astounding 1 million
persons, fully 10% of the population of Portugal!26 Most of these emigrants left Portugal
for France for socio-economic reasons, but many also desired to escape military service
in Portugal’s deadly colonial wars in Mozambique and Angola.27 Others emigrated to
escape the harsh dictatorship of former economics professor António Oliveira Salazar
and the infamous PIDE (Polícia Internacional de Defesa do Estado) that tolerated no
dissent.28 A small elite, usually loyal to the Salazar regime, departed Portugal as was
customary since at least the nineteenth century to pursue studies in France,29 while a
number of intellectuals who happened to be political dissidents on the left fled to France
among other destinations.30 Most of the Portuguese went to France to work, and it is the
working class that is faithfully represented in Madame Souza’s casa portuguesa in the
Triplettes film. The result of the huge influx of much needed Portuguese workers in
France, was surely beneficial to an expanding French industry, then engaged in the socalled “Trente Glorieuses,” the 1946-1975 period that brought an augmented standard of
living for the French populace.31 The law of unintended consequences was also engaged:
The Portuguese experience in France, a land of open democracy, enlightenment, liberty,
prosperity and opportunity eventually resulted in profound changes back in Portugal.32 Of
a million Portuguese residing in France at least 78% returned at least once each year to
the not too distant homeland for a special occasion or on holiday with “new ideas” that
neither the dictator Salazar nor the PIDE could prevent.33 The Portuguese experience in
France benefited France but in the final analysis it greatly benefited Portugal as well, and
became one important factor in preparation for the 25 April 1974 Revolução dos Cravos
followed ten years later by full entry into Europe and acceptance of modernity.34
14
Madame Souza may represent, chronologically at least, the earlier immigrants to
France already mentioned above, and her son35 and spouse, seen leaning against a bicycle
in a photo dated 1937 hanging in Champion’s bedroom, would then have belonged to the
second generation in the family to inhabit France. Whatever the reason for the parents’
disappearance, probably through an awful tragedy, Madame Souza is faced with the
difficulty of raising a grandson.36
Linguistics professor Cláudia Aparecida de Oliveira Leite in a brief article,
“Novos caminhos da criação? Reflexões sobre família e infância,” comments that once
Madame Souza discovers the boy’s interest in bicycles, both grandmother and grandson
have a common project to which they can jointly dedicate their efforts: Champion can
structure himself and move forward.37 However, in psychiatric terms, the reality of the
Souzas’ situation is much more serious and complicated. Madame Souza’s plight has
been masterfully described by professional psychoanalyst Alexander Stein in a recent
article, “Tricycles, Bicycles, Life Cycles: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Childhood Loss
and Transgenerational Parenting in Les Triplettes de Belleville.” 38 Dr. Stein finds that in
Les Triplettes filmmaker Chomet has used the perspective of the dream, or the
unconscious, with attendant distortions, attenuations, and hyperbolizations.39 For Stein,
the social criticism present in the film is secondary to the main theme, which is “the
impact of loss and affiliate concerns of mourning and melancholia on developmental
processes at varying stages in the life cycle.” Stein analyzes the psychiatric status, the
inner world of each of the two main characters, Madame Souza and Champion, and
observes that both are linked by their profound loss. The grandmother is traumatized by
her loss and bereavement for a son and daughter-in-law. She willfully accepts to become
15
a “double parental surrogate” in an attempt as best she can to fill the void created by the
loss of the boy’s parents
40
The psychology of her grandson, Champion, has been
disfigured by the loss of both parents; as a result he is withdrawn and depressed. His face
reveals a profound sadness, and because he does not utter a single word until the final,
ironical scene in the film, we can only suppose what his thoughts and ambitions really
are.
Champion is not true to his name, and despite the earnest, loving strivings of his
doting grandmother, Madame Souza, he fails to achieve the lofty expectations that his
parents obviously had intended when they chose that name for him. Champion is
ultimately a failure in life, a non-person, an anti-hero. He does not change or develop
much in the film. The contingencies and limitations affecting Champion as a
consequence of the tragic loss of both parents are multiple and cannot be replaced fully
by a single, female grandparent. Though she is well-intentioned and energetic in her
efforts to assist her grandson, Champion, whose sole ardent, childish desire is to become
a star, professional cyclist, cycling turns out not to be the best career choice for grandma
to foster in the lad, since cycling is a sport in which participants are exposed to certain
dehumanization, exploitation and corruption of unsavory sorts.41 In a substantial segment
of the Triplettes film, Director Chomet satirizes the fascination of the French public for
the annual Tour de France; he does not spare any of the visible hype and hoopla that are
part of the spectacle, namely the extensive media coverage of Le Tour, coupled with
ever-present, constant advertising and product promotion associated with it. Poor
Champion is depicted as la lanterne rouge (the “red lantern,” as on a train’s caboose),
“dead last” in the Tour competition, and becomes easy prey for kidnapping and some
16
intense exploitation by the mysterious, French underworld. Champion is eventually
liberated from his captors by the heroic actions of a feisty grandmother and her new
friends, the three eccentric sisters who have furnished the title of Chomet’s animated
feature. Champion may be free at last from the clutches of the underworld, but he
remains “figé,” static, a prisoner of his origins and his grandmother’s strong, domineering
character. He unfortunately is prepared best of all it seems to be a spectator rather than a
participant in the business of life, an expert on watching television. Champion’s life
appears to be essentially meaningless and circular, at the end of the film he has grown
old, grandma and Bruno have long since died as we surmise from a photo of them affixed
to the wall behind the television set. However, we hear Madame Souza’s inquiry, the
same as earlier in the film, but the product no doubt of Champion’s fantasy dream world,
“Has the film ended?” On this occasion, unlike the first when Champion did not respond
to her question, he replies, “It’s over, grandma.”
Film director Chomet’s lucid vision of the western, modern world that Champion
and his grandma inhabit features dark, even pessimistic overtones and warnings. The film
is an engagé work of an intellectuel de gauche42 whose work satirizes social ills of the
1960’s and 1970’s, issues that have only become more pressing thirty and forty years
later in our own accelerated globalized world. In the Triplettes de Belleville Mr. Chomet
presents us with a consumerist society entirely exploited by international big business, 43
manipulation of popular culture interests for profit, including sports, doping of athletes,
illegal betting, transnational organized crime, trafficking in humans, and unhealthy living
conditions in big cities -- whether they are located in Europe in North America’s USA
and Canada, or elsewhere.
17
Permit me some final comments. The Triplettes de Belleville film may be
considered an allegory of the post-modern human condition of Everyman, in the West.
The film is a reminder of one aspect of Voltaire’s Candide: ours is not the best of all
possible worlds!44 Music and rhythm, especially musical performance, essential aspects
of the human condition,45 replace dialogue in the movie, and offer real though temporary
solace
and
respite.
Paradoxically,
despite
Chomet’s
virtual
distortions
and
hyperbolizations, a necessary element in a cartoon, he captures the reality of our
globalized, dehumanized world, in focus, as in a single photograph, for us to
contemplate.
David A. Ross, Ph.D.
California State University, Fresno
davidro@csufresno.edu
18
Endnotes
1
“Triplettes de Belleville,” film review published online, Dec. 17, 2006.
<http://www.imbd.com/title/tt0286244/>. The potentially objectionable scenes in the film
may appear rather “tame” when compared with many telecast on everyday television
programs. However, this is definitely not a film for young children. Sensuality: Josephine
Baker, wearing only a few bananas around her waist, is shown dancing; In Belleville,
there is a prostitute actively engaged with a client in the hallway near the triplets’
apartment. Violence: Three cyclists are kidnapped by the French underworld. A grenade
is exploded by one of the triplets to gather frogs for dinner; another is exploded to
liberate captive cyclists from the crime syndicate’s gambling parlor in Belleville. A
captive cyclist falls from his bicycle and is shot dead by the gangster scorekeeper.
Although they use firearms (pistols and even a bazooka!) each member of the pègre
(French mafia underworld) meets a violent end while attempting to pursue the liberated
cyclists and their liberators. Crude humor: Many characters represented in the film are
obese and distorted. One fat matron waddles into the Belleville Theatre with her man
stuck in her buttocks. Fred Astaire’s shoes grow teeth, attack him and partially consume
him in full view of the audience. Males transformed into monkeys rush on stage and
consume the bananas worn by Ms. Baker around her mid-section. The accordionist
Rivette, la Fée (Fairy) de l’Accordion, performs atop a moving panel truck and becomes
stuck -- and injured -- under a bridge overpass. French gangsters become ill aboard ship
and vomit through portholes. A toilet bowl contains a feces in the shape of a dark Mickey
Mouse. And so on.
2
Some useful online resources concerning the film in question are: Claúdia
Aparecida de Oliveira Leite,“Novos Caminhos da criação? Reflexões sobre família e
infância,” Colóquio sobre família e infância, LEPSI IP/FE-USP, 2006: Psicanálise,
infância e educação. 1 Dec. 2006. <http://www.proceedings.scielo/br/>; Philippe Moins,
“The animated manifesto behind Sylvain Chomet’s The Triplettes de Belleville,”
Interview 23 Nov. 2003 (reported online) with S. Chomet, 26 Nov.2006
<http://mag.awn.com/index.php?article_no=1923>; Magdalena Segertova, “Les triplettes
de Belleville sortent en salles cheques,” Interview with S. Chomet, 11 Nov. 2003, Radio
Prague. 26 Nov. 2006. http://www.rdio.cz/fr/edition/47886; “Triplets of Belleville,”
interviews (online) with Sylvain Chomet and collaborators, 1 Dec. 2006
<http://www.sonyclassics.com>; “Triplettes de Belleville,” (on the film’s official
website) interviews with S. Chomet and collaborators, 2 Jan. 2007,
<http://www.lestriplettesdebelleville.com/>; “Triplettes de Belleville,” film review
published online, Dec. 17, 2006 <http://www.imbd.com/title/tt0286244/>.
3
Some useful journal articles that review and discuss the film are: Annie JouanWestlund, “L’Imaginaire populaire dans Les Triplettes de Belleville,” The French
Review. 79.6 (2006) 1195-1205; Richard Neupert, “The Triplets of Belleville (The
Triplettes de Belleville),” Film Quaterly, 58.3 (2005) 38-42; Philippe Rouyer, “Les
Triplettes de Belleville: un Tour de France … et d’Amérique,” Positif 508 (2003) 76-77;
19
Alexander Stein,“Tricycles, Bicycles, Life Cycles; Psychoanalytic Perspectives on
Childhood Loss and Transgenerational Parenting in Les Triplettes de Belleville,” The
International Journal of Psychoanalysis 87-4 (2006): 1125-1134. Dr. Stein’s thoughtful
and well-written analysis is probably the best published to date concerning the serious
content in the Triplettesde Belleville. At this writing (January 2007) I am aware of an
article in press: Florilane Place-Verghnes, “Douce France? Les Triplettes de Belleville,”
Le Cinéma d’animation, (Edtition hors série de CinémAction). Paris: Corlet-Télérama,
2007. I am grateful that professor Place-Verghes has kindly written to me that “Les
triplettes de Belleville est souvent présenté comme un film d’animation fleurant bon la
France d’antan. Cet article montrera comment le film de Sylvain Chomet subvertit au
contraire les rouages de la nostalgie bon marché. Comme vous voyez, je m’intéresse
dans cet article à la satire de la société américaine (ce qui est évident) et de la nostalgie
franchouillarde à la Amélie Poulain (ce qui l’est moins). Mais pas de portugais en
vue…”
4
Moins 1.
5
Michel Poinard,, and M.A. Hily, “Réseaux informels et officiels dans la
communauté portugaise en France,” Espace, populations, sociétés 2 (1983) 66: “Dans la
culture populaire c’est l’attachement au village d’origine qui prévaut (Quant un émigré
dit a minha terra -ma terre- il confond affectivement le Portugal tout entier et la terre
natale).”
6
Jouan-Westlund 1195.
7
The version originale’s title, Les Triplettes de Belleville, is the same as the one
used in the version distributed in the USA. However, the latter NTSC version is around
four minutes shorter than the original in PAL. The version distributed in the UK,
“Belleville Rendez-Vous,” is shorter still. The Portuguese version distributed in Brazil
(which I have not seen) is entitled “As bicicletas de Belleville,” according to professor
Oliveira Leite
8
I am grateful to my colleague, Dr. Douglas Singleton, Department of Physics at
California State University Fresno, who identified for me Chomet’s inclusion of
Einstein’s complete expression of the metrical law of general relativity.
9
Baker did in fact dance clad only in bananas around her waist in a historic
performance re-telecast last summer by TV5 Monde, Etats-Unis. The commentator
observed that had scandalized many, but not everyone!
10
Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France (London:
Simon & Schuster, 2004) 185: “Though not an ardent sports fan, de Gaulle could
recognize a great national institution when he saw one and his successors in the Elysée
Palace have been happy to appropriate the Tour as expressing their own “certain idea of
France.” The latter phrase, “Je me suis fait une certaine idée de la France,” is one of the
20
memorable quotes from de Gaulle’s Mémoires, and appears on the first page of the
volume.
11
Professor Oliveira Leite’s article (previously identified in note 3) makes use of
critique by Lacan and others to discuss the effects and pressures of “uma sociedade
consumista por excelência” on the adult-child relationship.
12
While viewing the Triplettes de Belleville for the first time together with my
wife, Elsa Maria Silva Savage Ross, and daughter, Anne-Marie Ross, both of them
noticed immediately the Portuguese decorations and tablecloth in the Souza’s home, a
casa portuguesa transplanted to France.
13
“Triplets of Belleville,” interviews (online) with Sylvain Chomet and
collaborators, 1 Dec. 2006 <http://www.sonyclassics.com>.
14
Magdalena Segertova, “Les triplettes de Belleville sortent en salles cheques,”
Interview with S. Chomet, 11 Nov. 2003, Radio Prague. 26 Nov. 2006.
<http://www.radio.cz/fr/edition/47886>.
15
Victor Pereira, “L’Etat portugais et les portugais en France de 1958 à 1978,”
Lusotopie: enjeux contemporains dans les espaces lusophones, (2002): 24.
16
Amália Rodrigues (1920-1999) known as the Rainha do Fado (Queen of the
Fado) remains an internationally known Portuguese vocalist. Several French citizens
once told me that they were studying the Portuguese language in order to understand the
lyrics to her songs.
17
On the strong identidade nacional among Portuguese immigrants to France,
see: Michel Poinard, “Bilans et leçons de l’immigration portugaise en France,” Espace,
populations, sociétés 2 (1993), 397, and Sergio Lopes,“Os portugueses e as
metamorfoses do racismo em França.” Revista crítica de ciencias sociais. 34, 34 (1992)
352.
18
“Triplettes de Belleville,” <http://www.sonyclassics.com>.
19
Segertova, <http://www.radio.cz/fr/edition/47886>.
20
Lopes 351; Poinard 393.
21
Lopes 351; Poinard 397.
22
Douglas Wheeler, ed., Historical Dictionary of Portugal, 2nd. ed. (Lanham,
Maryland and Oxford: The Scarecrow press, 2002) xlvii.
23
Poinard, Hily 58.
21
24
Poinard, Hily 58.
25
Wheeler xxxvi; Caroline Bretell.“Is the Ethnic community Inevitable? A
comparison of Portuguese Immigrants in Toronto and Paris,” The Journal of Ethnic
Studies 9.3 (1981) 3.
26
Pereira 9. However, since much immigration from Portugual was clandestine,
estimated numbers of Portuguese in France have varied. Brettell 3: According to the
Office National d’Immigration, by 1974 there were 580,000 legal Portuguese immigrants
in France, and at lest one third of these resided in or near Paris; Poinard 389: “En 1975,
avec plus de 750,000 ressortissants, la “communauté” portugaise devient la première
“communauté” étrangère en France.” On 13 October 2006 the RTP news reported that
each year 50,000 Portuguese emigrate to other countries in Europe. However, the
Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) has reported a lower official number: in 2003 27,
000 Portuguese left to take jobs, 75% listed as temporary, in the EU. I wish to thank my
wife’s cousin, João Silva Nunes, cardoiologista em Lisboa, for the later information,
which he located at http//www.ine.pt/Pl/genero/Principal.asp.
27
Wheeler xxxvi.
28
Pereira 19; Wheeler 126. My wife Elsa, who lived in Portugal through 1958,
has reminded me that under the facist Salazar regime, it was customary to “Comer e
calar, e gostar de Salazar.”
29
Wheeler 72-2-73; Pereira 12.
30
Socialist Mário Soares became a professor at the Sorbonne, Edouardo
Lourenço(?) took a post at the Université d’Aix-en-Provence, Manuel de Oliveira … (?);
these are just are a few names that come to mind of noted intellectuals who went into
exile in France.
31
Jean Fourastié, authored the influential commentary on “Les Trente
Glorieuses,” Fayard, 1979.
32
Pereira 27.
33
Felix Neto and Etienne Mullet, “Aspects du vécu des travailleurs portugais en
region parisienne.” Studi emigrazione. Etudes migrations 24 87 (1987) 425.
34
35
Pereira 27.
Since Champion’s riding shorts have “Souza” written on them in the scene in
which his grandmother pulls him up the stairs to tuck him into bed, it is reasonable to
22
assume that “Souza” is his father’s family name and that Madame Souza was the mother
of Champion’s father.
36
Chomet may have had a purpose in depicting the difficulty and challenges of
transgenerational child rearing in the Triplettes film since his film is an engagé
(committed to action) examination of various problems in contemporary society. For a
variety of reasons grand- parents are more involved in raising their children’s children
than formerly was the case on both sides of the Atlantic, according to:Carole B. Cox, To
Grandmother’s house We Go and Stay: Perspectives on Custodial Grandparents (New
York: Springer, 2000), p. 3; and Martine Segalen, “Enquête sur la grand-parentalité en
France,” Anthropologie et Sociétés 24.3 (2007): 75.
37
Oliveira Leite <http://www.proceedings.scielo/br/>.
38
Stein’s article is identified in note three (3) above.
39
Stein 1125.
40
Stein 1127.
41
Christopher S. Thompson, The Tour de France: A Cultural History, (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2006) 6: “Chapter six examines postwar debates about the
Tour as work, relates them to the racers’ longstanding practice of doping, and explores
the implications of that practice for their heroic image as France’s géants de la route.” On
exploitation see especially pages 185-206. On commercialization of the Tour de France
(satirized in the Triplettes film) see Wheatcropft, pp. 170 and 186.
42
Julie Barlow, and Jean-Benoît Nadeau, Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be
Wrong (why we love France but not the French) (Napeville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 2003)
70-71: “…the French prize their intellectuals above all. Unlike North America, the
French intellectual is, by definition, not just an expert or a scholar. French intellectuals
are, by definition, engagés (committed to a cause) … French filmmakers, and some
actors have also earned the status of intellectuals.”
43
Oliveira Leite, op cit: “É o estabelecimento dos vetores da criação no império
do discurso capitalista que tomará neste momento a nossa reflexão… O filme compõe
uma crítica primorosa ao modelo capitalista … uma convite a nossa reflexão sobre a
cultura do excesso e da implicação desse modelo nas relações familiares e sociais. O
filme revela os moldes de uma sociedade consumista por excelência, que não poupa
aqueles que não são mais consumíveis/consumistas.”
44
My own edition of Voltaire’s Candide, ou l’optimisme scheduled to appear
Februry 2007: Newark, Del., European Masterpieces; ISBN 1-58977-038-2.
23
45
Daniel J. Levitin, This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human
Obsession (New York: Penguin Group, 2006) 241-261: Chapter 9, “The Music Instinct,
Evolution’s #1 Hit.”