The Triplets of Belleville Cine-Concert brings the much beloved French feature The Triplets of Belleville to life at Pepperdine University's Smothers Theatre at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17 at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts.
In 2003, the animated French feature The Triplets of Belleville swept the globe, raking up dozens of awards and nominations—not to mention the hearts of countless admirers—along the way. Much of it came down to the Oscar-nominated score by Benoit Charest, which transports audiences to the exciting streets of 1920s Paris and Le Jazz Hot. Charest is back; with Le Terrible Orchestre de Belleville, an 8-piece band, he recreates the original score live, as the film itself is beamed onto the big screen.
The Triplets of Belleville follows a Tour de France cyclist named Champion who is kidnapped by a mysterious, square-shouldered henchman, and spirited across the ocean to the teeming metropolis of Belleville. Champion’s near-sighted grandmother and faithful dog follow his trail and are taken in by a trio of eccentric jazz-era divas. The motley sleuths follow the clues to an underground speakeasy, where they entertain the crowd.
Charest is an Oscar-nominated composer from Montreal. He has written over 20 film scores. He is mostly known for his 2003 Triplets of Belleville score. Besides being a versatile composer, Charest is an accomplished jazz guitarist and performs regularly with some of Montreal’s finest musicians. Like many teenagers of his time, Charest picked up the guitar at age 13 learning Beatles and Led Zeppelin tunes. He then took private guitar lessons and went on to further his musical studies at McGill and Montreal universities. He honed his trade touring as a sideman with various bands in Quebec and abroad. Charest wrote his first score in 1992 for a National Film Board of Canada (NFB) documentary. He is presently involved in writing music for his jazz organ trio and touring with the Le Terrible Orchestre de Belleville.