5/16/16

Belle & Sebastian: The Adventure Continues

France submitted this film directed by Christian Duguay to the 2016 Seattle International Film Festival. We had very much enjoyed "Belle et Sébastien" in the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival where we met a boy and his Great Pyrenees sheep dog who, along with courageous Basque locals helped the French Resistance smuggle Allied airmen out of France, through the Pyrenees mountains, and into Spain, where they could rejoin the war.

We settled in to see this new chapter, "Belle et Sébastien, l'aventure continue" (English captions). Now it's 1945, the war isn't quite over, but our former baker, the lovely Angélina is coming home for good. The military plane has engine failure, crashes and burns on the Italian border, some distance from where our 10-year-old hero and his dog wait for her with César. Sébastien refuses to accept that she might be dead. Thus his adventure continues...

The cast:
  • Félix Bossuet ("Belle et Sébastien") is Sébastien, still a bit headstrong, still an orphan and still accompanied by his faithful sheepdog everywhere he goes. This time he learns a bit more about his deceased mother and his absent father.
  • Tchéky Karyo ("Belle et Sébastien") is César. He's getting older, but that little newborn boy he found in the snow has become a big help with the sheep now that he's ten years old.
  • Margaux Chatelier ("Belle et Sébastien") is back as Angélina; maybe hurt, maybe dead, but they won't know until they find her. And the plane crash caused a forest fire.
  • Thierry Neuvic ("Tell No One") Pierre is called "You-Know-Who" by César. Sébastien can tell César doesn't like him, but they need his help. This guy grows on you....
  • Thylane Blondeau, a teenage model in her first movie role, brings us Gabriele, a girl who helps her injured father work in the forest. We are glad to see her so at ease in those wooded mountains.
This has plenty of excitement, some involving family issues, and some nice wildlife photography, but the most spectacular thing in my opinion, is the fabulous scenery. We see the French Alps filling in for the equally astounding Pyrenees mountains. There are breathtaking scenes with cliffs, crevasses and caves (although the forest fire is a bit lame). I liked this one, but then I'm a sucker for boys and dogs.