The Illusionist
A thoughtful and charming visual treat for grown-ups.
Sylvain Chomet follows up 2003's surreal animation Belleville Rendez-Vous with a touching story, based on an unpublished script from Jacques Tati.
The French actor, director and famous mime, Tati wrote the story as a letter to his daughter in 1956, and it has now been brought to life in Chomet's distinctive style.
With minimal dialogue, the 85-minute, 1950s-set film tells the story of an old-fashioned stage magician struggling to maintain a music hall career when rock bands become the new sensation. Chomet reunites with animator Laurent Kircher to bring life to Tatischeff, a kindly, humble man performing old tricks with a vicious and overweight bunny rabbit (stealing every scene). Taking jobs in village fetes, Tatischeff accepts an offer from a hilariously sloshed Scotsman for a night's work in a remote fishing village. In his short stay there, he bewitches the poor and naïve chambermaid Alice with his magic, not helped by the fact he presents her with shiny new red shoes out of thin air. There begins a fatherly, protective relationship with the young girl, who escorts him to Edinburgh.
Tatischeff takes up a music hall residency, and sleeps on the sofa of their one-bed rented flat. Alice becomes like a daughter, in that she doesn't assist his work in anyway, just wandering the shop-lined streets, staringly longingly at the clothes and accessories that find their way into her possession. The thing is, Tatischeff is foolishly bankrupting himself funding Alice's whims, with the poor girl in blissful ignorance. A wonderfully subtle final section shows Alice making the transition into responsible maturity, coinciding with a melancholy pay-off.
Chomet fills the pair's journey with delightful cameos and the sort of physical comedy that works so well in animation, although despair is never far away. His rendering of 1950s Edinburgh is exquisitely detailed, painted in rich, yet subdued hues. A thoughtful and charming visual treat for grown-ups.
Subscribe to the SG News Feed
