BELLE AND SEBASTIAN (Theatrical Release FRANCE 2013)

 Ben Meyers’ rating: 3.4|5.0 Starsììì

Belle and Sebastian—not a classic—needs stronger presentation. It focuses on rescuing a cur dog and relegates the escape of human refugees from Nazi soldiers to the background. This is not as it should be. It needs to be rewritten with the focus on the plight of humans trying to escape through the worst possible conditions and insert the dog as the secondary story rather than the primary story. This will create a stronger movie that will appeal to a wider audience. With the focus turned inside out, as it were, it fails to evoke the heart-felt emotion necessary to create the powerful movie. There are scenes at the end of the movie that make it difficult to connect to because the human connection was not established at the forefront of the film.

Film Poster Courtesy of Wikipedia 

Storyline

A boy and his dog work together to foil Nazi soldiers’ attempt to interfere with resistance movements during WW II.

Additional Thanks

Thank you to Director Nicolas Vanier for directing effort. Thank you to Producers Frédéric Brillion, Gilles Legrand, Clément Miserez, and Matthieu Warter. Additional characters/cast include: Sébastien (Félix Bossuet), César (Tchéky Karyo), Angélina (Margaux Chatelier), Docteur Guillaume (Dimitri Storoge), The Mayor (Urbain Cancelier), Lieutenant Peter (Andreas Pietschmann), André  (Mehdi El Glaoul), Esther (Paloma Palma), La mère d'Esther (Karine Adrover), Le père d'Esther (Loïc Varraut),and Soldat Hans (Jan Oliver Schroeder). 

Buy a ticket? Yes? No? Maybe?

 No. A much better ‘escape from the Nazis’-themed movie is Sound of Music. If one is looking for a film with a European flavor that features children and animals, then watch the Heidi movie that stars Shirley Temple. 

Video Critique Available Here:

Ben Meyers