The Illusionist

Earning an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film, director Sylvain Chomet's minimalist and melancholy The Illusionist pays wonderful homage to legendary French comic actor and filmmaker Jacques Tati (1907-1982), creator of Mr. Hulot's Holiday. The wistful, almost wordless story revolves around Tatischeff (voiced by Jean-Claude Donda), an elderly vaudeville magician who packs up his recalcitrant rabbit, leaving Paris for London, where he realizes that rock 'n' roll has replaced his kind of sleight-of-hand act in music halls. The genteel, dignified performer ultimately winds up in Edinburgh, Scotland, and attains modest success. Living in a shabby boarding house filled with circus performers, he befriends Alice (Eilidh Rankin), a naïve young chambermaid who becomes his assistant. Their evolving relationship is tenderly paternal, as Tatischeff takes on odd jobs to provide Alice with the luxuries she increasingly covets. Adapted from a 1950s screenplay by Tati, the script was inherited by his daughter, Sophie Tatischeff, who passed it along to Chomet, who here conjures up a bittersweet nostalgic tone poem, utilizing Disney's archetypical, hand-drawn 2-D animation to create exquisite imagery. Both inventive and touching, The Illusionist is highly recommended. (S. Granger)