The Illusionist

Sylvain Chomet, the director of Academy Award nominated Belleville Rendez-Vous has written a letter to the city he fell in love with. Having moved to Edinburgh after visiting the city’s film festival in 2003, he now delivers a story that touches deep into your emotion, drawn in sumptuous 2D and shows us that there is more to animation than Pixar and Disney.

The Illusionist is a story about the demise of the variety show. Parisian magician, Tatischeff, finds his audiences deserting him for more popular and louder rock bands and so makes his way to the Western Isles of Scotland to look for gigs after being given a business card from a drunken Scot at a party. While there he meets the young proprietor’s daughter, Alice, who is in awe of his magic. She believes that he is her ticket off the island and into the big wide world, while he seems to see her as the daughter he never had. Together they make their way by train to Edinburgh where they move into lodgings whose inhabitants are an eclectic bunch; a team of chirpy acrobats, an alcoholic ventriloquist and a suicidal clown.

Armed only with a single promotional poster Tatischeff acquires himself an agent and soon a residency at the local theatre. Tatischeff spends all his earnings on making Alice happy; she seems to think that every time he produces a coin from behind her ear, that he literally is producing it from thin air but for Tatischeiff, the audience numbers are dwindling and he is forced to take up various odd jobs to tie the two of them over. As we reach the climax we see that Tatincheiff and Alice are spending less and less time together and soon Alice is looking for the next man in her life while all Tatincheiff wants is to be appreciated.

Chomet has produced a work of wonder and beauty that will literally put a lump in your throat. Each scene is a sumptuous moving painting with an attention to detail which is often missing from many big budget live-action movies. The script was adapted from an unmade Jacques Tati script written between his classics Mon Oncle (1958) and Playtime (1967). Chomet sought the permission of Tati’s daughter to adapt the piece and move it from the original locations of Paris and Czechoslovakia to Paris and Edinburgh. Deciding to go through the painstaking process of 2D animation where each frame is draw by hand by a team of dedicated and very talented artists, Chomet has gone against the grain and shown that once again, retro is cool. There is little dialogue in this film, indeed the two main characters, Tatischeff and Alice speak different languages and so utter the odd word to one another. The dialogue is there almost as background noise or a Foley track.

The Illusionist is a lesson in visual storytelling that every filmmaker should watch before embarking on their next project. Chomet, like Tati, has a much attuned eye for the comic detail in human communication and interaction; how we as human beings are always striving for one-up-man-ship and ultimately, the glory. Every character here has a story and it is one which is both comic and tragic in equal measures.

Visually this piece is stunning. Chomet’s depiction of Edinburgh is so thought out, so precise. The colours change as the weather changes (which we all know in Scotland can happen four or five times a day). Chomet shows all the landmarks of the city in a way which makes you think you’ve never really looked at them with such wonder before. Indeed this may be the first film to fully capture the beauty and magic which resides in Scotland’s capital city. There is little to say negatively about this movie. Some will call the ending ‘brave’ while others will understand it was what the story needed. This is not a fairy tale or a happily-ever-after but it is a film that will stir your senses and your emotions and make you remember why you loved animation so much as a child. Perhaps Pixar and Disney should give Chomet a call and see if they can do something together? I think then we would see the birth of something huge.

Last edited: 21st August 2010

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