PULLMAN, Wash. — The Oscar-nominated French animated film “The Triplets at Belleville” (2003) will be screened to a live jazz orchestra performance of its original score, led by composer-conductor Benoit Charest, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 19, in Washington State University’s Jones Theatre.
Charest and his band, Le Terrible Orchestre de Belleville, will play the musical score, including his Oscar-nominated song “Belleville Rendez-vous,” in perfect synchronization with the film as it is projected on a large movie screen behind the musicians.
In the movie, a Tour de France cyclist named Champion is kidnapped by mysterious, square-shouldered henchmen and spirited across the ocean to the metropolis of Belleville. His near-sighted grandmother and faithful dog Bruno follow his trail and are taken in by a trio of eccentric jazz-era divas as they strategize his rescue.
The story is told almost exclusively through the visual art, music and sound effects, so the audience will not need to read subtitles to follow the action.
Reserved seat tickets cost $20 adults, $16 seniors (ages 60 and up), $10 non-WSU students and youth, and free for WSU students with valid ID. A discounted rate of $15 per person is available to groups of eight or more.
Tickets are on sale at all TicketsWest outlets, including online at TicketsWest.com, by phone at 800-325-SEAT, and in person at WSU’s Beasley Coliseum and the Rosauers Supermarket in Lewiston, Ida. Advance ticket sales are subject to service charges unless purchased at Beasley’s ticket office. The Daggy Hall box office will open two hours before the performance for will-call and ticket sales (subject to availability).
Charest is an accomplished composer and jazz guitarist from Montreal who has written more than 20 film scores. His work on “The Triplets of Belleville” earned him many awards, as well as Oscar and Grammy nominations for the original song “Belleville Rendez-vous,” cowritten with the film’s writer and director, Sylvain Chomet.
“The Triplets of Belleville” was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and won numerous critics’ awards for both film and score. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called it a “bracing blend of silliness and sophistication,” while Roger Ebert proclaimed, “‘The Triplets of Belleville’ will have you walking out of the theater with a goofy damn grin on your face, wondering what just happened to you.”
This performance is presented by WSU Performing Arts with generous support from the Residence Inn by Marriott Pullman and the Courtyard by Marriott Pullman.
Convenient parking will be available without permits or fees in the Daggy Hall parking garage and in the Green 3 lot directly across the street from Daggy Hall.
“The Triplets of Belleville” is rated PG-13.
- 2-min. cine-concert promo: https://vimeo.com/182013001
- Trailer for “The Triplets of Belleville”: https://vimeo.com/108399300
- WSU Performing Arts: http://performingarts.wsu.edu/
- TicketsWest: https://www.ticketswest.com/events/wsu-performing-arts/10391/
Contact:
- Gail Siegel, WSU Performing Arts, 509/335-8522, gsiegel@wsu.edu
