No Illusion

 In the same hand drawn style of the Triplets of Belleville (2003) comes Sylvain Chomet’s bitter sweet adaptation of an unrealised Jacques Tati script, The Illusionist ( l’llusionniste, 2010. Again, we are reintroduced (or introduced) to Chomet’s quirky charactertures and the gibberish dialogue his characters perform), which works perfectly with a Monsieur Hulot type character. For me, I most enjoyed the drunken Scottish man, where on one occasion we get to see a lot more of him than we want too, as the wind swayed his kilt in all kinds of directions.

The narrative focuses on the relationship between a struggling illusionist (Jean-Claude Donda) and a girl named Alice (Eilidh Randkin), who believes that the illusionist is a successful magician and travels with him as he performs to only minimal crowds. The hand drawn animation comes to life as it characterises the locations he travels, Paris, London and Edinburgh. 

Although there are moments of comedy, it only helps to heighten its tragedy. We see a struggling clown try to commit suicide and a ventriloquist who eventually becomes homeless, like the illusionist they are part of a dying breed of performers. This is all set in contrast to the successful sold out performers, a new, hip, rock and roll band with over exaggerated hair and clothes. The band, bend and gyrate to crowds of screaming teenage girls in the very same theatres.

Throughout, the illusionist keeps his magic alive for Alice, he is determined to scrap enough money together and even resorts to other forms of employment in order to pretend he’s still successful. The character is reminiscent of Roberto Benigni in Life is Beautiful (1997) who also keeps up an illusion in order to protect his son from the reality of actually being a prisoner in a concentration camp; but both cannot conceal the reality forever.

 The Illusionist provides a beautiful father and daughter relationship with the added farcical direction of Chomet. The script was rumoured to have originated from a letter written by Jacques Tati to his eldest daughter asking for forgiveness over his negligence as a father.  Allegedly, Tati’s eldest daughter wanted credit for majority of the script, but Chomet claimed that he too is a father who does not live with his daughter anymore and that the script had also begun to mirror their relationship.

This was something I had read after viewing the illusionist, helping to highlight that this was a film without illusions, but instead honesty.