Bellyful (2000)

Synopsis: After a ten-year layoff from the big screen, Melvin van Peebles returns with a visionary work so startling and inventive that one might forget its creator has been involved with cinema for over five decades. Loretta (Andrea Ferreol) and Henri (Jacques Boudet), a middle-aged French couple,... After a ten-year layoff from the big screen, Melvin van Peebles returns with a visionary work so startling and inventive that one might forget its creator has been involved with cinema for over five decades. Loretta (Andrea Ferreol) and Henri (Jacques Boudet), a middle-aged French couple, own a small restaurant in a quiet, respectable community. Needing an extra set of hands around the house since their daughter Blanchette (Claude Perron) left town to care for her ailing aunt, they visit a nearby orphanage and obtain the services of a young Black woman, Diamantine (Meiji U Tum'si). When Diamantine arrives at home with her "parents," she is at first apprehensive, but eventually embraces her new surroundings. This happiness turns to confusion when they ask her to pretend that she is pregnant. Unsure of their motives, and by nature an extremely innocent individual, Diamantine plays along without questioning. But when an old family friend, Jan (Herman van Veen), reenters Loretta and Henri's life, the reasons for their mysterious actions gradually begin to reveal themselves. With BELLYFUL, Van Peebles exhilaratingly blends traditional storytelling with a strikingly original visual aesthetic (the film was shot on digital video to allow for greater manipulation of the images), creating an inspiring, optimistic tour-de-force that is much a celebration of the medium as it is a startling work of entertainment. [More]