Belle & Sebastian (2013)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Belle & Sebastian |
| Original title | Belle et Sébastien |
| Country of production | France |
| original language |
French , German |
| Publishing year | 2013 |
| length | 104 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 0 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Nicolas Vanier |
| script |
Juliette Sales , Fabien Suarez , Nicolas Vanier |
| production |
Frédéric Brillion , Gilles Legrand , Clément Miserez |
| music | Armand Amar |
| camera | Eric Guichard |
| cut |
Stéphanie Pedelacq , Raphaele Urtin |
| occupation | |
| |
| chronology | |
|
Successor → |
|
Belle & Sebastian (Original title: Belle et Sébastien ) is a French feature film directed by Nicolas Vanier from 2013 . It takes place in a small village in the French Alps and tells of the friendship between the orphan boy Sebastian and the wild dog Belle. The basis is the novel Belle et Sébastien by Cécile Aubry .
The story is told in episodes with a few leaps in time, begins in the summer of 1943 and ends the following winter.
action
The old shepherd César and the eight-year-old Sebastian, who considers César to be his grandfather, rescue an orphaned young mountain goat from a ledge in the opening scene. They are looking for "the beast" that is widely believed to have killed many sheep recently. Nobody has seen it yet, but it is known that it is a large dog that was abused by its owner and is now living in the wild.
The small mountain village of Saint Martin, in which Sebastian lives with César's niece Angelina, has suffered severely from the German occupation, which demands significant food deliveries to provide for them and occasionally also loots remote farms. Above all, however, the Germans know that Jewish refugees are being brought from the village over the mountains to nearby Switzerland. They want to identify and arrest the escape helpers, but have no success because the times of their inspection rounds seem to be known to the escape helpers.
Shortly thereafter, on his forays into the mountains, Sebastian gets to know "the beast" in the form of a large Pyrenean mountain bitch, who is very shy at first, but soon trusts him. He quickly realizes that she has a kind heart and does not tear sheep, but he also knows that nobody will believe him and that he has to bring the dog to safety from the men of the village. So he shows her the traps that have been set up and leads her to a lonely mountain hut, which he regards as his personal refuge where she can hide. He calls her Belle ("the beautiful"). They spend all summer days together in the mountains.
When the brave Sebastian later comes into conflict with two German soldiers, Belle comes to his aid and injures one of the soldiers. This makes the secret friendship between Belle and Sebastian well known and a political problem. The mayor, still convinced that the dog is dangerous, organizes a driven hunt under pressure from the German commanding officer to kill the bitch and thus also to protect Sebastian. This brings César, who loves Sebastian very much, into a conflict of conscience, but since he also considers Belle to be unpredictable, he betrays Sebastian. Belle is cornered and shot, but is able to escape in the dark. Sebastian is so deeply hurt by César's behavior that he doesn't speak to him anymore. The next day he finds Belle still alive in the little mountain hut and cares for her with the household remedies known to him, but since she also has a high fever, he has to call in the village doctor Guillaume and threaten him with pressure, otherwise he will betray him the Germans - he has long since seen himself that Guillaume is the refugees' mountain guide.
Later, already in winter, the sheep in the mountain stable are surrounded by hungry wolves and break out of the stable in a panic. Guillaume, who is currently on an escape route in the mountains with a Jewish family, tries to protect the sheep, but is injured in the leg. Belle joins them, drives away the wolves according to her innate function as herd guardian dog and then saves the injured Guillaume by pulling him into the village on his sledge. Now everyone is convinced that Belle is friendly and that the wily sheep are the fault of the wolves.
Sebastian, who was always told that America was beyond the mountains and that his mother would soon be visiting from there, learns that this is not true, and César tells him the truth: Sebastian's mother, a gypsy , became heavily pregnant by César in the mountains found and brought to safety in the mountain hut, but died soon after the delivery, whereupon César adopted the baby as his son and entrusted Angelina.
Since the injured Guillaume can no longer lead the refugees, Angelina takes over, but the next day they are followed by a German who calls out to them to stop. His calls trigger a snow avalanche , which the refugees narrowly escape. Sebastian and César see the avalanche going off and rush to help. Belle digs up the buried German, who can just barely warn the trek: today the pass will be checked unscheduled. From this Angelina realizes that he was Guillaume's contact. Since the second possible route was blocked by the avalanche, there is only a particularly dangerous high passage over snow-covered crevasses . Sebastian convinces Angelina that Belle will find the crevices and they take this route.
When she handed over the refugees to the Swiss mountain guide after the crossing was completed, Angelina Sebastian announced that she would go with them and then on to England to help in the fight against the Germans from there. They say goodbye and Sebastian starts the descent into the village alone with Belle.
Reviews
The film service praises the "exciting adventure film", which tells "with quiet, impressive pictures of the boy's maturation" and captivates with "majestic landscape shots" and which successfully relocates the plot to the time of the Second World War.
Sequels
In 2015, the first sequel entitled Sebastian und die Feuerretter was published, followed by Belle & Sebastian - Friends for Life in 2017 , again with Félix Bossuet and Tchéky Karyo in the lead roles.
Web links
- Belle & Sebastian in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Belle & Sebastian at prisma.de
- Belle & Sebastian at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of release for Belle & Sebastian . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2013 (PDF; test number: 142 158 K).
- ↑ Belle & Sebastian. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Sebastian and the fire rescuers. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Belle & Sebastian - Friends for Life. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 22, 2020 .