France has long enjoyed a special relationship with jazz. A generation of black musicians settled in Paris in the postwar era, charmed by the absence of the racial barriers that were all too familiar back home. So perhaps it should not have come as a surprise that Belleville Rendez-Vous should have turned out to be such an inspired marriage of melody and animated action.
Although it tells the story of a lonely boy’s rise to Tour de France fame, coached by his indefatigable granny, its co-stars are three old music-hall divas long past their glory days, the “triplets of Belleville” of the film’s original French title. These feisty, eccentric dames rescue the young cyclist from the clutches of evil baddies and sing some of the film’s most rousing numbers.
Far from being a product of the smokier arrondissements, the film’s composer Benoît Charest, is in fact a French-Canadian, who was born in Montreal in 1964. His passion for jazz seems to have been inherited from his English-born mother, who had seen such figures as Dave Brubeck and Miles Davis performing in London. Charest himself grew up with eclectic tastes, plunging into everything from the Beatles to Frank Zappa. To this day, he prides himself on his jack-of-all-trades leanings.
Like most jazz musicians, Charest had also to master the art of improvising a modest living, playing on the local circuit, working the QE2 and eventually making soundtracks for commercials and independent films. His collaboration with Sylvain Chomet began when they met in a Montreal club. On Belleville Rendez-Vous Charest was involved at a very early stage. He explained in a recent interview that he had been involved from the start of the animation, then the gestures were developed from the music. “Usually you’re at the end of the process when you write the music. So, you’re catching up on everybody’s time.”
The results have a dream-like perfection. Combining Thirties-style Django guitar and a joyous sprinkling of traditional pop styles, Charest’s music matches the idiosyncratic visuals with uncanny attention to detail. The film’s soundtrack makes enjoyable listening in its own right.
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There are hints of Ellington-esque horns on Tout Doux Bruno, an extrovert New Orleans shuffle on Cabaret d’Ouverture, while Bach à la Jazz cleverly dips into The Well-Tempered Clavier in the spirit of that veteran piano improviser Jacques Loussier. The sensual close-harmonies, meanwhile, which hark back to the days of hit groups such as the Andrews Sisters, became the inspiration for that cult British retro group the Puppini Sisters.
Like the Tour de France, the music forms a long and reckless journey through an intoxicating landscape.