THE ILLUSIONIST
France, 2010, 80 minutes. Colour.
Directed by Sylvain Chomet.
Tatischeff is a magician/illusionist who, in the late 1950s, is becoming something of an anachronism in the theatres and music halls where he performs. He also has a recalcitrant rabbit who won’t stay in his hat. Out of work, he travels to London where he is upstaged by a 1960s rock and roll group (and the encores for their adoring female fans). What is he to do? He goes to Scotland, encounters a young woman who believes he is really a magician. Meanwhile, he works in a hotel and cares for the young woman, a father-figure.
Eventually, he goes away, leaving a note to say that he is not really a magician. Fortunately, there is an attentive young man who will love and care for the girl.
That’ is the plot outline for a screenplay written by Jacques Tati (full name Tatischeff) in the 1950s but never filmed. It has been taken up by director, Sylvain Chomet, who had made the intriguing animation, Les Triplettes de Belleville (like The Illusionist, Oscar-nominated for Best Animation Film).
For Tati fans (and those who will seek him out after seeing this film and discover his classics, Jour de Fete, M. Hulot’s Holiday, Mon Oncle (a scene of which is playing at the local cinema for the magician to watch), Playtime), the film will be a delight as well as a wry reminder of Tati’s own life and his abandoning one of his daughters. There are also playful, generally wordless, occasions like that of the puppet in the shop window whose price goes down each time we pass until it is still there, but ‘Free’.
The animation is a blend of the realistic and the elongated, a bit like the tall, thin Jacques Tati himself and the magician Tatischeff whose walk, gestures and stances, especially hand at the back of the hip, observing, are just like M. Hulot. The backgrounds of Paris, London and Edinburgh have been given special realistic/impressionistic attention. The parody of the rock group and the lead singer is funnily effective.
Brief, slight, evocative.
1. The plot? The artistry of the animation? A Jacques Tati original? His script, character, his real name? the clip from My Uncle? The dedication to his daughter?
2. The work of Sylvain Chomet, his films and style of animation, drawing, backgrounds, characters, action, serious, humorous? The musical score – and Chomet composing?
3. A story of the 1950s, the recreation of the period, the music hall in Paris, the city of Paris, the contrast with London and the United Kingdom, the rock concert? The contrast with Scotland, with Edinburgh?
4. Jacques Tati and his career, his experiences as a clown, his age? The old style of the illusionist? Waiting at the music hall? His performance? The rabbit causing difficulties, the carry-on? His poster, removed? Alone?
5. The illusionist being outdated, fired, his travelling to the United Kingdom, the train, the boat, arriving in London? The vistas of London?
6. His job, waiting for the rock group to finish, the girls screaming in the audience, the many encores, the girls all departing, the old woman and the boy left, watching? His sense of failure?
7. Travelling to Scotland, his performance in Scotland? Going to Edinburgh? His life, the hotel? Alice and the friendship, the surrogate parent? The flats?
8. Alice, her character, her belief in the illusionist? Her finding a father figure? Yet finding the boyfriend, his attentiveness to her?
9. The illusionist, his decision to leave? His note for Alice? The parallels with Tati’s own life and leaving his daughter?
10. The life in Edinburgh, the detail – the shop and the material for sale, the puppet and it still in the window despite its being free? The illusionist tricks and their detail?
11. The illusionist, what would be his future? Leaving Alice in the care of her friend? A melancholic ending? For a melancholic story? In the Tati vein – especially with the clip from My Uncle – and the drawing of the illusionist figure, resembling Tati in height, manners, walk?
12. The Oscar nomination – and the critical acclaim for the film?
