THE ILLUSIONIST
ILLUSIONIST, THE
A nostalgic trip back to the golden days of vaudeville.
Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville) brings his meticulous brand of hand-drawn animation to a hitherto unproduced Jacques Tati script from 1959.
This bittersweet homage to a fading music-hall tradition sees an illusionist - physically modelled on Tati himself - battered by the seismic onslaught of the rock 'n' roll era. Only in the naivety of a young girl does his magic find a place in which it can flourish.
“Bathed in self-aware melancholy, lightened by slow-burn humour and a sensibility rooted in silent-era film-making… Its 2D imagery simply could not be better.” - Screen International