Review by Stuart O'Connor
Stars the voices of Jean-Claude Donda & Edith Rankin | Written by Sylvain Chomet & Jacques Tati
Certification UK PG | Ireland 12A | Switzerland 7 | Runtime 82 minutes | Directed by Sylvain Chomet
A beautiful, charming and very sweet – if melancholy – love letter to Edinburgh, The Illusionist comes from the pen and mind of Sylvain Chomet, who was Oscar-nominated for 2003's Belleville Rendez-Vous.
It tells the story of a French magician, in 1950s Paris, who finds himself being pushed aside for rowdy rock'n'roll acts. So Tatischeff (see what they did there?) packs up his top hat and rabbit and heads for pastures new – Scotland, to be exact, thanks to a chance meeting with a drunken Scot. He starts off in a small pub on an island off the western coast, but soon wends his way to Edinburgh, followed by the owner's daughter.
Once he and Alice are settled in a rather strange hotel (other residents include a troop of perky acrobats, a depressed clown and a ventriloquist) he gets a gig at a local theatre. Tatischeff spends his money on gifts for Alice, but as the audiences dry up, he finds he has to get odd jobs – such as working at a garage – to make ends meet.
The Illusionist has been adapted by Chomet from an unmade script by the great Jaques Tati. And it's almost a Tati film – it's virtually silent, with just the odd line of dialogue here and there. And the magician not only looks like Tati, he's named after him too: Tatischeff was Tati's proper name. The storyline is somewhat sad – Tatischeff never really finds true happiness – but for me it feels true to life, much more than many modern live-action films. And the real joy in Chomet's film is the stunning 2D hand-drawn animation, which is almost a dying art in this modern age of CGI wizardry (not to take anything away form the geniuses at Pixar).
If you know Edinburgh at all, and love the city as much as I do, you'll be overhelmed at how sublimely it's been recreated here. It's not the happiest film to watch – a lot of critics have called it depressing – but it's easily one of the greatest visual feasts you'll see at the cinema this year