The Illusionist () is a 2010 French-British animated comedy-drama film written and directed by Sylvain Chomet and based on an unproduced script written by French filmmaker and mime Jacques Tati in 1956. Set in the late 1950s, the story follows an aging stage illusionist whose act is overshadowed by the rising popularity of rock and roll, prompting him to visit an isolated Scottish community where he bonds with a young woman who is convinced he is a real magician.
Controversy surrounds Tati's motivation for the script, which was written as a personal letter to his estranged eldest daughter, Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel, in collaboration with his long-term writing partner Henri Marquet, between writing for the films Mon Oncle and Play Time."Chomet Tackles Tati Script" Time Out. New York. Stefanou Eleni Stefanou (2007)"La postérité de M. Hulot" , David Bellos (2008-03-25)"Jacques Tati Deux Temps Trois Mouvements" . Matthieu Orlean (8 May 2009). Cinémathèque Française Chomet relocated the film, originally intended by Tati to be set in Czechoslovakia, to Scotland in the late 1950s.Pendreigh, Brian (22 June 2007) "Chomet's Magic Touch". The Guardian. According to the director, "It's not a romance, it's more the relationship between a dad and a daughter."Comic genius Tati returns to screen in cartoon version of lost screenplay The Times by Brian Pendreigh, 2004-04-23 Sony's US press kit declares that the "script for The Illusionist was originally written by French comedy genius and cinema legend Jacques Tati as a love letter from a father to his daughter, but never produced". The film received acclaim from critics, and was nominated for both Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, losing to Pixar's Toy Story 3 & DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon, respectively.
Plot In 1959 Paris, an out-of-work illusionist packs his belongings, including an ill-tempered rabbit, and moves to London. Unable to compete with modern entertainment such as rock and roll, he plies his trade at smaller gatherings in bars, cafés, and parties. He accepts the invitation of a drunken party patron to visit a remote Scottish island, where he entertains the locals. Staying in a room above the pub, he meets a girl, Alice, who is captivated by his illusions and kindness, including a gift of red shoes.
Alice believes the downtrodden performer possesses genuine magical powers, and follows him to Edinburgh, where he performs at a modest theatre. They share a room in a run-down guest house favoured by other fading performers. The illusionist sleeps on a couch, and the girl keeps busy by cleaning and cooking food that she shares with the neighbours. The girl's affections even tame the rabbit, but the illusionist's increasingly meagre wages, spent on gifts for Alice, lead him to pawn his magic kit and secretly take on demeaning jobs.
Alice attracts the affection of a handsome young man. After the illusionist sees them walking together, he leaves her with money and a note stating "Magicians do not exist". He also releases the rabbit on Arthur's Seat, where it soon meets other rabbits. As Alice moves in with her boyfriend, the illusionist departs on a train hauled by a locomotive bearing the number 4472. On the train, he performs one last simple magic trick for a child.
Production According to the 2006 reading of the script at the London Film School introduced by Chomet, "The great French comic Jacques Tati wrote the script of The Illusionist and intended to make it as a live action film with his daughter".London Film School (LFS), Scenario 3 , 2005-12-19 Catalogued in the Centre National de la Cinématographie archives under the impersonal moniker "Film Tati Nº 4", the script was passed to Chomet by the caretakers of Tati's oeuvre, Jérôme Deschamps and Macha Makeïeff after Chomet's previous film The Triplets of Belleville was premiered at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Chomet has said that Tati's youngest daughter, Sophie Tatischeff, had suggested an animated film when Chomet was seeking permission to use a clip from Tati's 1949 film Jour de fête as she did not want an actor to play her father. Sophie Tatischeff died on 27 October 2001, almost two years before the 11 June 2003 French release of The Triplets of Belleville.
Animation The film was made at Chomet's Edinburgh film studio, Django Films, by an international group of animators directed by Paul Dutton, including Sydney Padua, Greg Manwaring and Jacques Muller.IMDB Retrieved 6 November 2018 (Scotland on Sunday) It was estimated to cost around £10 million and was funded by Pathé Pictures, but in a February 2010 press conference, Chomet said that it had ended up costing only $17 million (£8.5 million in early 2008). The Herald says 180 creatives were involved, 80 of whom had previously worked on The Triplets of Belleville."Why Sylvain Chomet chose Scotland for the movie magic of The Illusionist" . Matheou, Demetrios. The Herald. 15 June 2010 In The Scotsman, Chomet cites 300 people and 80 animators."Interview: Sylvain Chomet, film director" Ramaswamy, Chitra. The Scotsman. 14 June 2010 The film was primarily animated in Scottish Studios in Edinburgh (Django Films) and Dundee (ink.digital), with further animation done in Paris and London. The animation scenes set in Paris were executed at Neomis Animation studio, where the animation department was directed by Antoine Antin and the clean-up department by Grégory Lecocq. Around 5% of the work (mainly inbetweening and clean-up) was completed in South Korea.
Motives for the script Controversy has dogged The Illusionist,"Jacques Tatis ode to his illegitimate daughter". 2010-06-16 Daily Telegraph. Accessed 2010-08-19Roger Ebert's Journal; "The secret of Jacques Tati" 2010-05. Accessed 2010-08-19 "Sylvain Chomet: the trials of making "The Illusionist , "Time Out Magazine. Accessed 2010-08-19 with it being reported that "Tati was inspired to write the story in an attempt to reconcile with his eldest daughter, Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel, whom he had abandoned when she was a baby. And although she's still alive today and may in fact be his only direct living relative, she is nowhere mentioned in the dedications, which has seriously annoyed some".
In January 2010, The Guardian published the article "Jacques Tati's lost film reveals family's pain" stating, "In 2000, the screenplay was handed over to Chomet by Tati's daughter, Sophie Tatischeff, two years before her death. Now, however, the family of Tati's illegitimate and estranged eldest child, Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel, who lives in the north-east of England, are calling for the French director to give her credit as the true inspiration for the film. The script of L'illusionniste, they say, was Tati's response to the shame of having abandoned his first child [Schiel] and it remains the only public recognition of her existence. They accuse Chomet of attempting to airbrush out their painful family legacy again."
On 26 May 2010, renowned film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times published a lengthy letter from Jacques Tati's middle grandson, Richard McDonald, that pinpointed historical events in the private life of Jacques Tati that the family believe were his remorseful, melancholy inspiration to write, yet never make, L'Illusionniste.
Chomet has a different opinion about the film's origins, although acknowledging: "I never got to meet Sophie, or even speak to her about the script."The National article (UAE) "His master’s voice: a cartoon homage to Jaques Tati" 15 June 2010. Accessed 2010-08-19Edinburgh Film Festival article . Accessed 2010-08-19 Chomet said, "I think Tati wrote the script for Sophie Tatischeff. I think he felt guilty that he spent too long away from his daughter when he was working."
In a June 2010 interview for The National, Chomet gave his personal reasons for his attraction to the script: "I have two young children, a four-year-old and a two-year-old. But I also have a daughter who is 17 whom I don't live with because I separated from her mother. She was 12 when I started the project and you can feel things changing."The National article . Accessed 2010-08-19 This appears to mirror the regret of a broken paternal relationship that Tati had with his own daughter Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel. Of the story, Chomet commented that he "fully understood why [Tati] had not brought [The Illusionist] to the screen. It was too close to him, and spoke of things he knew only too well, preferring to hide behind the figure of Monsieur Hulot".BoDoi Comic blog (French) . Accessed 2010-08-19
Having corresponded with Tati's grandson, former Tati colleague and Chicago Reader film reviewer Jonathan Rosenbaum published an article entitled "Why I can't write about The Illusionist" in which he wrote, "Even after acknowledging that Chomet does have a poetic flair for composing in long shot that's somewhat Tatiesque, I remain skeptical about the sentimental watering-down of his art that Chomet is clearly involved with, which invariably gives short shrift to the more radical aspects of his vision". With McDonald being quoted saying, "My grandmother and all his stage acquaintances during the 1930s/40s always maintained that [Tati] was a great colleague as a friend and artist; he unfortunately just made a massive mistake that because of the time and circumstances he was never able to correctly address. I am sure his remorse hung heavy within him and it is for this reason that I believe Chomet's adaptation of l'Illusionniste does a great discredit to the artist that was Tati."
Release The first footage from the film was shown at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. The film premiered at the Berlinale festival in February 2010. The film opened the 2010 Edinburgh International Film Festival on 16 June.
Pathé Distribution managed distribution for France and the UK, and distribution deals were secured for Lithuania (ACME Film), Japan (Klockworx), Italy (Cinema 11), Greece (Nutopia), the United States (Sony Pictures Classics), Benelux (Paradiso), Russia and the Middle East (Phars Film). Ружье, банк и разряд по бегу . Gazeta. 17 February 2010 The first official trailer for the film was in Russian and was released on 13 March 2010. The film was released in France on 16 May 2010.
The Illusionist was then released on DVD by Pathé through 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in 2011. As of 2021, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment UK is currently re-printing under licence from Pathé. It was also then released on Japanese home media by Walt Disney Studios Japan through the Ghibli Museum Library.
Reception
Box office The film opened in 84 French cinemas. According to Box Office Mojo, the film released in France on 16 June 2010 entered the box office chart at #8, with a revenue of €485,030 ($600,099) in the first weekend.
The Illusionist opened in the United Kingdom in 42 cinemas (August 2010). It entered the UK box office at #15, with revenue of £161,900 one place behind Disney's Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, the chart dominated by Sylvester Stallone's The Expendables which grossed £3,910,596 in revenue in its first weekend of release.UK film Council, 22 August 2010
Critical response , the film holds approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews with an average rating of . Its critical consensus states: "An engrossing love letter to fans of adult animation, The Illusionist offers a fine antidote to garish mainstream fare." It also has a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".