The Illusionist (2010)

If you have seen Les Triplettes de Belleville, then you will instantly recognize the animation and the style. Even the story. The same rabid capitalism of the '50s, the bleak vision of a life that is clearly worse, but somehow feels more colorful than the present.The story of the production of the film is interesting, too: Wikipedia explains how it is based on a script written by Jacques Tati in order to reconcile with his estranged daughter.But there is a major difference. In Triplettes there is a clear goal of saving the kidnapped bicycle rider, but in L'illusionist there is no goal, just rampant disillusionment (pardon the pun). The ending is not satisfying anybody, with the main character having learned nothing and the silly country girl just having moved from her Scottish village to the big city.Bottom line: I liked the animation, but the story left me with a bitter taste, part nostalgia, part melancholy and part stale alcohol and cigarette ash.

Words cannot express how beautiful this film is, both in visuals and in content.I watched it, stupidly expecting a live action film, but what I got... Well, it's difficult to describe.The animation is the best I've ever seen, I have no idea how they did it, but so often you have to remind yourself that it's not real despite the fact that the art work is stylised.Each shot contains details that only add to the story, and each shot is like a work of art.This is a beautiful film, watch it as soon as you possibly can.

This film was nominated for the Academy Award for Animated Feature, losing to Toy Story 3. There will be spoilers ahead:This film uses a script written by Jacques Tati and adapted by Sylvain Chomet. The film displays the strengths/weaknesses of Chomet's other works (Exactly what constitutes a strength or a weakness is variable, depending on the eye of the beholder). The plot is minimal, with just the barest sketch of a story. A stage magician, practicing a craft which is dying out in the late 1950s, finds himself reduced to playing backwater towns and smaller venues, meeting a very naive young girl named Alice in one inn in Scotland. When he leaves, she follows him without his knowledge, popping up on a train, where the magician decides on the spur of the moment to take the girl under his wing.They take a room at a rundown boarding house for lower rung stage acts. The magician sees his opportunities to be a stage act dry up and takes other, less appealing and more degrading work to support them until the girl meets a young man and the two part company and begin separate chapters in their life story. That's the story.Doesn't sound like much, does it? Except that Chomet makes up for the sketchy plot here by his attention to detail in the visual look of the film and the magnificent characterizations of even the most minor characters. The magician's rabbit is enormous and rather ill-tempered, the magician himself (modeled after Tati) is stiff and formal, charming and distant. The girl is industrious and calculating, full of dreams and desires and at the start of her life, filled with hope.Various characters pop up and drop out of the film. The drunken host in a kilt shows up a few times, a popular, noisy and rather silly rock band crosses paths with the magician a couple of times in the film and the down and out stage acts, particularly a trio of acrobats constantly in motion, provide some humor and pathos here and there.The film is visually gorgeous and shows a lot of attention to detail. A train crosses a river on a bridge and you see it's reflection in the water as a waterfowl takes flight. Lights shining through windows cast light and shadow on the interior of rooms and characters. The colors are striking and lush when they should be or dingy and washed out when it's appropriate. It's an animator's film in some ways. It's beautifully executed. The character designs are the type Chomet characteristically uses. Watch through the end of the credits, as there's a nice little scene at the end.This film is available on DVD and Blu Ray and both look very good, with Blu Ray getting a slight edge. This film is most definitely worth seeing. Most Recommended.

This animated film is outstanding, i cant see anything wrong with it. I'm inspired by this world that was created for us. Everyone must see this movie. My first love as i watched this movie was the animation, i saw this film on my film class at school, and as it ended there were different positions on liking or disliking the film, i was impressed by my classmates opinions, at first they said that this film contained simple animation. My face fell off, I've seen every animated movie bye Mr. Chomet and i can say this was his most detailed animated movie yet, every frame is so detailed and neat. The quality of the animation was the reason i was so interested at the beginning of the illusionist. The way Jacques moved was so brilliant, off course later i realized that hist movement was based on a real human being. I don't want to ruin this movie for you, i just want to say that this movie brought my most humble and sensitive side.