Film: The Illusionist
Release date: 14th February 2011
Certificate: PG
Running time: 90 mins
Director: Sylvain Chomet
Starring: Edith Rankin, Jean-Claude Donda, Jil Aigrot, Didier Gustin, Frédéric Lebon
Genre: Animation
Studio: Pathe!
Format: DVD
Country: France/UK
Sylvain Choment’s latest film adapts a script by Jacques Tati. The film’s unique style is only being shown in forty cinemas across the UK, its box office status falling behind the animated Pixar hit Toy Story 3.
The 1950s were the days of the dying music hall which is where we find our Illusionist, performing to disinterested audiences in virtually empty theatres in Paris. His performing days, sadly, are numbered, and so we join him on a journey to a theatre in London.
Here his act follows a hideously pompous boy band, equipped with ridiculous hair and screaming fans. They are just one of the reasons why his quaint art is dying out. He performs to ever decreasing audiences from small theatres, garden parties to pubs and off licences. A pub in the highlands is celebrating the installation of electricity and it is here that he meets Alice, an innocent and hard working chambermaid.
It isn’t clear whether she totally believes his tricks are magical, but either way he is happy to finally be appreciated, and so indulges her fantasy.
In awe of his tricks, she follows him to Edinburgh where he buys her expensive gift after expensive gift. Soon he has to seek out other work to supplement his lack of funds. Her naivety is dangerous for the conjurer, although his intentions are honourable...
Though neither of the main characters is particularly bad, Alice’s innocence grates towards the end, and the audience is left wondering how she could be so naïve, as she cannot be oblivious to the hard times that all music hall performers are facing. She encounters depressed clowns contemplating suicide and out of work puppeteers in the building, but perhaps that is the reason for her later actions.
The little dialogue is mumbled fragments of French and Gaelic, which leaves the stunning animation and music to express the story. Apparently Tati wanted the script to be live action, but this film proves animation isn’t just for children. It captures the death of music hall and the societal changes that the illusionist is faced with everywhere he goes.
Flickering black-and-white images on the television sets in a shop window captivate and excite Alice and those of her age far more than the conjurer, whose tricks can be seen up his sleeve. Though the piece is tinged with tragedy, it is more melancholic and delicate in its delivery.
The dreary circumstances of this aging illusionist, whose rabbit doesn’t even want to cooperate, are, however, punctuated with humour. Chomet is somehow able to make the image of a suicidal clown, slumped on his sofa and honking his nose, comic. The comedy has an edge to it that offers the audience light relief to the intertwining stories of the performers, even though it is stabbed with panic - in particular, a sequence with the angry rabbit soup in a depiction of misunderstanding. The Illusionist searches through his soup looking for the horrifying evidence that he is about to eat his pet, and long serving friend, until Alice returns.
It may seem that Sylvain Chomet became too attached to the story, and its relation to Jacques Tati’s past. Apparently Tati wrote the script in 1956 in an attempt to make amends with his estranged eldest daughter, Chomet, however, believes his daughter Sophie is the true inspiration. The film is basically a homage to Jacques Tati, the Illusionist looks like him and even stumbles into a cinema where Mon Oncle is showing. This may have hindered growth for the script, but Chomet is the only person capable of delivering such a nostalgic and personal film to the screen. Yet an audience removed from the understanding that Tati’s relationship with his daughters is the main inspiration for the film may feel emotionally detached throughout.
Those who are followers of Tati’s work or loved Belleville Rendez-vous will inevitably be drawn to such as personal piece. As will those seeking out a different experience from Disney, Pixar and even Studio Ghibli animation. This film, however, may confuse or bore those who are looking for the usual Hollywood narrative. It is a shame the detail of this touching story will be overlooked by so many. KH
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