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Film soundtracks usually fall into one of three categories. In the pre-video
era their function was to serve as a souvenir of a much-enjoyed movie, but
by the '90s, soundtracks had become just one part of the film companies'
marketing apparatus, often bearing little or no relation to the blockbuster
they were promoting. In a few, all too rare, cases, film soundtracks have
taken on a life of their own, being admired as self-contained works of art �
2001: A Space Odyssey, Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner being three that
spring to mind.
French jazz guitarist Ben Charest�s score for Sylvain Chomet's much admired
animation feature Belleville Rendez-Vous falls into the latter category,
being an enjoyable artistic statement in its own right, but it also serves
as a souvenir of this remarkable film, and, given the film's lack of
dialogue, as a means of driving and underpinning the action.
The plot, concerning a cyclist who is kidnapped by dark forces, leaving his
grandmother, Madame Souza; his dog, Bruno; and an old singing group, Les
Triplets de Belleville, to try and rescue him is as quirky as the music - a
strange mix of cocktail jazz, big band sounds, Palm Court Orchestra cool,
accordion-led ballads, torch songs, space age easy-listening and jaunty
work-outs evocative of those sublime Stephane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt
jam sessions.
The overall effect of this m�lange of different styles is one of pastiche,
nostalgia and unsettling dislocation, not unlike prolonged exposure to one
of Frank Zappa's '60s sound collages � without the rude bits of course.
Disney this most certainly isn't. Ben Charest's intention is, ultimately, to
convey the singular mood of Chomet's film, a kind of jaunty
other-worldliness and, whether it�s on the Herbie Hancock pastiche of Jazzy
Bach, sub rock and roll of the hilarious Pa Pa Pa Palavas or the raunchy
Opening Theme, he succeeds admirably.
It's the Belleville Rendez-Vous theme, however, that stays longest in the
cranium, a motif that occurs in three different versions, two of them
performed by M, but Charest also cleverly includes the original demo version, the
rawness of this recording adding a certain manic energy to proceedings, the
same holding true for much of the soundtrack.
As with most movie soundtracks it helps if you have seen the film but, so
vivid is Ben Charest's music, that it is by no means essential in order to
appreciate this album. The odds are, however, that once you have seen the
movie, you'll also want this wonderful recording � and vice versa.
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