THE ILLUSIONIST (2010) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Sylvain Chomet
A French animated feature based on an unfilmed screenplay by Jacques Tati, about an aging music hall magician who ends up in Scotland, where there's barely enough work to get by on, let alone provide for the servant girl who's moved into his life. True to Tati, it's done in pantomime, with music and sound effects and a few incidental words in a variety of languages. It's whimsical in a way only animated movies (0r Jacques Tati movies) can be, but it's not your typical cartoon for children. Its themes are more in line with real life. Sometimes, matter-of-factly, bad things happen, and a happy ending is not guaranteed. It's funny and it looks great and it's emotionally honest and it captures a time in the late 1950s, when the music halls were closing, television and rock & roll were taking over, and the old clowns and ventriloquists and rabbit-in-the-hat magic acts were running out of time. Highlight: when the magician walks into a cinema where Tati's "Mon Oncle" is playing, comes face-to-face with his live-action doppelgänger, watches for a moment, and walks back outside.
