I haven't been able to see The Illusionist, but I've also been debating violently with myself over whether I want to. Jacques Tati was one of the great film comedians; his films take place in a warm, sunny, and essentially benign world in which even coincidence works in favor of the characters, and yet there's an underlying thread of intellect and drive that you don't expect from sleepy-feeling comedies. As lnhammer says, he may be something of an acquired taste, but it's a taste worth acquiring. The one to start with is Mr. Hulot's Holiday, which is in some ways mentally equivalent to spending a week at a beach yourself.
Tati very carefully kept his personal life out of his films and out of the press. Sylvain Chomet filmed The Illusionist from a script Tati had intentionally not produced, a script written as an attempt to deal with the consequences from his abandonment of his (eldest, illegitimate) daughter in Morocco during World War II (she survived, and both of them seem to have been in wrenching pain about it for the rest of their lives). The script was also never actually finished. Members of Tati's extended family have been trying to sue Chomet since he announced he was going to film it in the first place, and are still trying to get injunctions to keep him from showing the film.
So I can't decide whether I want to see it. On the one hand, it is Tati, and he's one of my favorite directors, and the courts have ruled that Chomet came by the script legitimately and has every right to do what he wants with it. On the other hand, I'm not entirely certain I want to see something a man I admire so much kept so carefully private and thought was so painful.
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regna
(no subject)
Date: 2011-02-17 00:04 (UTC)Tati very carefully kept his personal life out of his films and out of the press. Sylvain Chomet filmed The Illusionist from a script Tati had intentionally not produced, a script written as an attempt to deal with the consequences from his abandonment of his (eldest, illegitimate) daughter in Morocco during World War II (she survived, and both of them seem to have been in wrenching pain about it for the rest of their lives). The script was also never actually finished. Members of Tati's extended family have been trying to sue Chomet since he announced he was going to film it in the first place, and are still trying to get injunctions to keep him from showing the film.
So I can't decide whether I want to see it. On the one hand, it is Tati, and he's one of my favorite directors, and the courts have ruled that Chomet came by the script legitimately and has every right to do what he wants with it. On the other hand, I'm not entirely certain I want to see something a man I admire so much kept so carefully private and thought was so painful.