The Illusionist (2010)
Feb. 16th, 2011 11:27![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyThe Illusionist. Dir. Sylvain Chomet, 2010.
This is one of those movies that makes me feel out of step with the rest of the world.
I knew nothing about this movie other than that it was directed by the same person who did The Triplets of Belleville, which was an amazing, amazing movie, so I went to see it thinking that I would get…well, asoyceter said to me, it's not like Triplets had much plot, but to my mind, it did have a coherent, enjoyable story or premise, at least, whereas I spent the entire length of The Illusionist waiting for the movie to do things it had no interest, in the end, in doing.
The script was originally written by French comic Jacques Tati (whoever he was) for his daughter (which one is a matter of debate), and was adapted by Chomet; in the event, it follows a down-on-his-luck illusionist, Tatischeff, as the exigencies of his trade in the 1950s force him from Paris across the Channel around Britain to the furthest extremes of the Scottish Highlands. While there he meets a young girl, Alice, who brazenly decides to accompany him to Edinburgh when he leaves because, for whatever reason, while he stayed in the village he bought her a new pair of shoes.
The animation and the sound direction and the minimalism of the dialogue and the sound track--the way that these two characters share so much time together but speak so few words, the way that light and sound and motion are shown in the animation--are really, really beautiful, and on that level the movie is great. But I absolutely hated the story, because Tatischeff spends all his money on presents for Alice--he even takes a second job as a night watchman at a garage--and she never, ever seems to think of doing anything but sponge off of him, beyond certain minimal things like keeping their hotel room clean and cooking their meals. All the press describes their relationship as father-daughter, and while it's certainly platonic, to me it seemed parasitical, and it absolutely infuriated me that in the end Tatischeff is forced to pawn his illusionist's kit and set off for parts unknown while Alice takes up with a town boy and presumably will spend the rest of her life completely dependent on a man, albeit a different one. And maybe Tatischeff has been liberated; "there are no magicians," he tells Alice at the end, by note, but maybe he's been stripped of everything that made him what he was. The movie doesn't give us any way to judge, and Alice doesn't seem to learn anything except urbanite consumption habits. Blech.
But everyone else apparently loved it, so maybe I am just a joyless curmudgeon.
This is one of those movies that makes me feel out of step with the rest of the world.
I knew nothing about this movie other than that it was directed by the same person who did The Triplets of Belleville, which was an amazing, amazing movie, so I went to see it thinking that I would get…well, as
oyceter said to me, it's not like Triplets had much plot, but to my mind, it did have a coherent, enjoyable story or premise, at least, whereas I spent the entire length of The Illusionist waiting for the movie to do things it had no interest, in the end, in doing. The script was originally written by French comic Jacques Tati (whoever he was) for his daughter (which one is a matter of debate), and was adapted by Chomet; in the event, it follows a down-on-his-luck illusionist, Tatischeff, as the exigencies of his trade in the 1950s force him from Paris across the Channel around Britain to the furthest extremes of the Scottish Highlands. While there he meets a young girl, Alice, who brazenly decides to accompany him to Edinburgh when he leaves because, for whatever reason, while he stayed in the village he bought her a new pair of shoes.
The animation and the sound direction and the minimalism of the dialogue and the sound track--the way that these two characters share so much time together but speak so few words, the way that light and sound and motion are shown in the animation--are really, really beautiful, and on that level the movie is great. But I absolutely hated the story, because Tatischeff spends all his money on presents for Alice--he even takes a second job as a night watchman at a garage--and she never, ever seems to think of doing anything but sponge off of him, beyond certain minimal things like keeping their hotel room clean and cooking their meals. All the press describes their relationship as father-daughter, and while it's certainly platonic, to me it seemed parasitical, and it absolutely infuriated me that in the end Tatischeff is forced to pawn his illusionist's kit and set off for parts unknown while Alice takes up with a town boy and presumably will spend the rest of her life completely dependent on a man, albeit a different one. And maybe Tatischeff has been liberated; "there are no magicians," he tells Alice at the end, by note, but maybe he's been stripped of everything that made him what he was. The movie doesn't give us any way to judge, and Alice doesn't seem to learn anything except urbanite consumption habits. Blech.
But everyone else apparently loved it, so maybe I am just a joyless curmudgeon.