Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Belle et Sebastien

5 comments:

Joe Milutis said...

was that the whole show? was it a series? Does anything happen, or was it just a series of poetic vignettes? (I expected there would have been an avalanche, a skier stuck down in a crevasse, etc.)

Jonathan Wonham said...

Hello Joe

Belle and Sebastien was a series made in France and broadcast on the BBC a number of times between 1967 and 1978, often during the school holidays. I was born in '65 so it formed part of the backdrop to my childhood.

From doing some reading here I see it was a series. I remember especially the haunting title music (which runs at the end of the clip) and the angst that derived from the fact that the villagers wanted to shoot Belle (the dog) while Sebastien wanted to protect her.

I can't say I remember a lot else of it. There probably were avalanches as well. I posted it simply because it is a personal icon, the stuff of my childhood dreams, and my first taste of France.

Anonymous said...

Also - it has a really nice theme tune, which was one of my first experiences of how French sounds!

http://www.thechestnut.com/belle.htm

Anonymous said...

Strange that at that time France produced some of the most beguiling & sophisticated popular music, vocal & instrumental, & some of the most paralysingly awful.

Anonymous said...

Dick - isn't/wasn't that still/always the case ?? :-)