L'Illusionniste

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Movie
German title The Illusionist (Austria)
Original title L'Illusionniste
Country of production United Kingdom ,
France
original language English , French , Scottish Gaelic
Publishing year 2010
length 80 minutes
Age rating JMK 6
Rod
Director Sylvain Chomet
script Sylvain Chomet
Jacques Tati
(original screenplay)
production Sylvain Chomet
Bob Last
music Sylvain Chomet
cut Sylvain Chomet

The Illusionist is a French - British animated film from the year 2010 by Sylvain Chomet . The melancholy film drama is based on a screenplay by Jacques Tati , which he wrote in 1956 between the films Mein Unkel und Tati's glorious times , but never realized. It tells the fatherly relationship between a poor old wizard and a young admirer.

action

In 1959 the hapless and slightly clumsy magician, who is known by his stage name Tatischeff, wanders from one place to another just to be able to finance his next meal. He has just been released in Paris at the “Royal Luxor” and is traveling to London , where he is allowed to perform in the “Emporium”. But because there are only a few spectators, he is quickly dismissed and travels through some festival events, where he is approached by an enthusiastic Scot to appear in his small village pub. Since Tatischeff needs the money, he travels to Scotland, where he gives the slightly backward, quickly enthusiastic and friendly village community an appearance that, to Tatischeff's astonishment, is honored with frenetic applause for the first time in a long time.

A young lady named Alice is also employed in the restaurant, who is enchanted by Tatischeff and who cleans his laundry for him for free, whereupon he thanks her with new shoes. Both are sympathetic and look after each other, so that they travel to Edinburgh together , where they stay in an artist hostel and Tatischeff gets a performance in the “Royal Music Hall”. But since his appearance again fails, he is released again. Despite financial worries, he buys Alice the desired white coat and tries to fulfill other wishes such as good food and nice shoes. But he just can't afford it. With the last of his money he buys her beautiful high-heeled shoes, with which she strolls off into the night.

He himself is now broke and takes a job in a car workshop, which he loses again the next morning. More and more artist neighbors lose their jobs and are broke, so that they seek their escape either in suicide or in other professions. That makes Alice sad, she is losing more and more friends. While she finds some hope in a handsome young man, Tatischeff has to let the last of his dignity be stripped away when he is hired as a magician for the shop window of the "Jenners" department store while working for an advertising agency. He feels so humiliated that he quits a job himself for the first time.

While Tatischeff is completely broke through Edinburgh, he discovers Alice strolling through the streets with her beautiful neighbor, happily in love. Since he does not want to be discovered by her, he hides and flees to a cinema, where a Tati film is currently being seen with My Uncle . He then runs home and on the way meets his former neighbor from the artist hotel, the ventriloquist, who is now completely drunk and impoverished, begging on the street. Tatischeff runs into his hotel room, leaves fresh flowers as a sign that Alice should now follow her new luck, and leaves Edinburgh.

criticism

The reviews of the film were mostly positive. The US Rotten Tomatoes service received 117 reviews, 105 of which were positive and 12 were negative.

“L'Illusionniste presents the magical melancholy of the last act of Jacques Tati's career . [...] But the film stands on its own two feet and hides the real events that inspired it. He lives and breathes in his own way, and can be seen as a complement to Tati's mysterious whimsy. "

- Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times

“L'Illusionniste is a cautious homage to its author and at the same time a melancholy look at a lost world. [...] Even without dialogue, a story develops, clear, if not loud, in the relationship that arises between the two characters. "

- Manohla Dargis in the New York Times

“Slyvain Chomet directed an animated adaptation of Jacques Tati's 1956 script, but without Tati's visual wit and wild inventions. [...] Chomet reduces Tati's overwhelming and irritable humor to an exaggerated sentimentality. The result is a cliché-laden nostalgia trip, in French, English Gaelic. "

- Richard Brody in the New Yorker

“If the film proves one thing, it's that words aren't even necessary. Pictures, music and the few sounds of the protagonists are enough to tell the story of The Illusionist. [...] So if you liked The Artist, have no objection to nostalgia and melancholy, or just want to see an example again that cartoons don't just have to be for children, a literally enchanting journey through time is waiting for you. "

- Oliver Armknecht on www.film-rezensions.de

production

During a reading of the script by Chomet at the London Film School , Chomet said that “The great French comedian Jacques Tati wrote the screenplay for L'Illusionniste and intended to make it a real film with his daughter.” The play was in the archives the national Center of Cinematography and the moving image cataloged under the name "film Tati Nº 4" and the guardians of the work Tatis, Jerome Deschamos and Macha Makeïeff, Chomet was presented in 2003 after it with the Triplets of Belleville at film Festival Cannes had occurred. Even before that, Tati's daughter Sophie Tatischeff, who was originally intended to play the role of the girl, had told Chomet that she could only imagine a film adaptation in the form of an animated film. Chomet could understand this well, because the thought of having Tati played by another actor seemed ridiculous to him too.

The film was made at Chomet's Edinburgh film studio, Django Films, by a group of international animators. The originally estimated cost of £ 10 million was borne by Pathé Pictures . During a press conference in February 2010, Chomet said the film ended up costing $ 17 million. The Herald of Scotland claimed that 180 creatives were involved in the production, 80 of whom had already worked on The Great Race of Belleville . The Scotsman even said that there were 300 people and 80 animators. Most of the animations were produced in Edinburgh and Dundee, with others in Paris and London. About five percent of the work, mostly cutscenes, was done in South Korea .

Awards

publication

After the first excerpts of the film had already been shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 , the film had its official film premiere on February 16, 2010 at the Berlinale 2010 . The theatrical release in Belgium and France was on June 16, 2010. So far there has been no theatrical release in Germany. In 2012 the film was released on DVD with German subtitles by the Arthaus label .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for L'Illusionniste . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_illusionist-2009/
  3. ↑ Roger Ebert : The Illusionist (PG) on suntimes.com of January 12, 2011 (English), accessed January 15, 2012
  4. ↑ Manohla Dargis : Conjurging a Magical Relationship on nytimes.com, December 23, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012
  5. ↑ Richard Brody: The Illusionist on newyorker.com , accessed January 15, 2012
  6. ↑ Oliver Armknecht: The Illusionist on www.film-rezensions.de
  7. ↑ London Film School (LFS), Scenario 3 ( Memento of the original from May 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 285 kB), accessed on January 15, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lfs.org.uk
  8. ↑ Tati meets Chomet in The Illusionist ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 15, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.theplayground.co.uk
  9. ^ Antonio Cuomo: Sylvain Chomet racconta The Illusionist (Italian) . In: Movieplayer.it , February 17, 2010. Retrieved January 15, 2012. 
  10. ↑ Pendreigh, Brian "Chomet's Magic Touch" . The Guardian , June 22, 2007, accessed January 15, 2012
  11. ↑ Scots animation? That rings a belle ( Memento of the original from January 21, 2008 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( Scotland on Sunday ), accessed January 15, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com
  12. ^ "Why Sylvain Chomet chose Scotland for the movie magic of The Illusionist " . Matheou, Demetrios. The Herald . June 15, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012
  13. ^ "Interview: Sylvain Chomet, film director" Ramaswamy, Chitra. The Scotsman . June 14, 2010, accessed January 15, 2012