The Illusionist (2010)

The Illusionist (French: L'Illusionniste) is a 2010 French-Scottish animated comedy-drama film directed by Sylvain Chomet. The film is based on an unproduced script written by French mime, director and actor Jacques Tati in 1956. 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.

The main character is a version of Tati animated by several people under the lead of Laurent Kircher. The plot revolves around a struggling illusionist who visits an isolated community and meets a young lady who is convinced that he is a real magician. Originally intended by Tati to be set in Czechoslovakia, Chomet relocated the film to Scotland in the late 1950s. According to the director, "It's not a romance, it's more the relationship between a dad and a daughter." 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".

Synopsis

The story is set in 1959 and is told with only a few brief snatches of dialogue, much of it in Gaelic. A down-on-his-luck illusionist (known by his stage name, "Tatischeff") watches his popularity and employment in Paris dry up. He packs his meager belongings and props, including an ill-tempered white rabbit, and moves to London. There he finds himself as the irrelevant act following a popular rock band. Despite his wounded pride, he adopts a nothing-to-lose attitude and continues plying his trade at yet smaller gatherings in bars, cafés, and private parties.

Actors