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nThe Illusionist (2010)
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nDirector: Sylvain Chomet
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nSylvain Chomet is a very special animator that all lovers ofntraditional hand drawn animation should be exposed to. His style is so unique, it’sna true delight to watch. The first time I was exposed to his work was whilenorganizing a short film festival. I was looking for some of the best shortnfilms ever made and upon my research I stumbled upon a 25 minute animated shortnfilm entitled The Old Lady and the Pigeons (1997). This short film won manynawards when it was released and it’s not without merit, the short film is anwonder of animation, beautiful, grotesque and nightmarish at the same time! Andnthis is a short film about an old lady who goes to the park every day to feednpigeons! Search it out on you tube, you won’t be disappointed! So anyways, thenshort film was a hit on my short film festival, people clapped and cheered atnit. So of course, I searched for Chomet’s other films. I had to see thisnwonderful animator’s whole body of work.
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nThis is how I came upon The Triplets of Bellville (2003). Inwasn’t expecting to get my mind blown by a film about a grandmother who trainsnher grandson to become a world class cyclist, but there I was entranced by thenawesome mix of visuals and sound. The thing about Chomet’s films is that thenunique visual style of his drawings will keep your eyes glued, but so will thensounds and the absence of dialog. To Chomet, actions speak louder than words. Wenget sounds, we get music, but when someone speaks, it won’t be often, andnusually it will sound like a language you might know, but it will more thannlikely be a muffled sound sounding like language, meant to transmit an idea, annemotion. Kind of like when Charlie Chaplin speaks gibberish in Modern Times (1936)? Or how he speaks “German” in The Great Dictator (1940)? You swear Chaplin’s speaking in a known language, but he’s actually speaking gibberish?nLike that. This is how language works in a Chomet film, which makes for annamazingly unique audio visual experience. I was very impressed by The Tripletsnof Bellville, which is why I was delighted to discover he had one more film innhis animated repertoire: The Illusionist (2010), the film I’ll be talking aboutntoday.
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nThe Illusionist tells the tale of an aging Illusionist whonis on the verge of becoming passé, his act has become old hat, replaced bynyoung rock and roll groups. So he decides to travel the country, searching fornnew venues that will appreciate his particular talent. So he travels tonEdinburgh where he finds a variety of venues that give him a job, butnbasically, he’s a lonely guy living from gig to gig. On one of his venues, henmeets this young woman whom he immediately befriends. She is extremely poor, sonhe decides to buy her a pair of shoes. She immediately becomes attached to thenIllusionist and decides to become his traveling companion. He on the othernhands becomes her protector and provider, so they become friends. But questionsnimmediately arise, she’s a young woman, and he’s an older fellow. What are hisnintentions with her? Is he merely interesting in helping the girl? Is he innlove with her? Is she in love with him? Is it a platonic thing? Is he just a GoodnSamaritan?
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nThe Triplets of Bellville (2003) was such an exhilaratingnexperience, a nonstop barrage of amazement, such a tour de force of animation thatnof course my expectations for The Illusionist were extremely high. And whilenThe Illusionist does deliver in many ways, mostly with its visuals and over allnambiance and feeling…sadly it fails to deliver a film with substance to it. Itnfeels like it could have worked better as a short film rather than a 90 minutenfilm. The story is just too thin, not enough happens, to justify a full lengthnpicture. But putting aside my desires for a slightly more complex story, there’snstill a lot to be enjoyed here. I mean, Chomet manages to capture Edinburgh, henmakes it magical. He does something with its localization that not a lot ofnmovies can do: it makes you want to live there. This has happened to me withnsome Hayao Miyazaki films, like Ponyo (2008), were I felt like I living in thatnlittle town by the sea. Well, the same thing happened to me with ThenIllusionist (2010). It made me want to live in this easy going, magical lookingncity. But yeah, that’s about all this film has to offer, the beautiful art worknand animation, which I still enjoyed to the max. I mean, any love ofntraditional hand drawn animation will have a feast here.
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nUltimately, this is a film to be enjoyed from a purely visualnperspective, it’s meant to be enjoyed simply as a visual treat, because there’snnot a lot of mental stimulation, not a lot of meat with the potatoes. Sure thenfilm does address certain themes, like when do we become obsolete? Should wenadapt to the changing times? What is platonic love? But it’s all touched uponnlightly, this film is more about absorbing visuals, feelings, emotions and thenbeautiful artistry with which the visuals were brought to life. But if I was tonrecommend a Sylvain Chomet film, one that would really blow you away, it wouldnbe The Triplets of Bellville (2003), it’s the superior of the two. Chomet wentnon to direct live action films as well, but I’ve yet to dive into those. Lastnwords on The Illusionist (2010), it’s purely style over substance, but oh whatnstyle!
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nRating: 4 out of 5
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