When the poetry of Chomet joins that of Tati

2023-06-16 08:28:07

In the early 2000s, while working on his first animated feature film, The Triplets of Bellevillethe director and screenwriter Sylvain Chomet had sent a request to the deceased filmmaker’s daughter, Sophie Tatischeff, with a view to obtaining the right to include in his film a few excerpts from Celebration day. Discovering the style of the young Chomet, she said to herself that he was not incompatible with the universe of a scenario left by her father and never filmed, known under the code name “Film Tati n^o 4 ».

Set in the 1950s, the story of this unnamed text that has become The Illusionist, released in theaters in 2010, is simple and beautiful. It depicts an aging magician with outdated numbers, gradually pushed out of the music hall stages by the irruption of rock’n’roll. Marginalized, running the stamp in the most remote places, the artist one day crosses a young girl a little naive, to whom he becomes attached like a father, making him believe that he can answer his desires of a magic wand.

Sylvain Chomet once again deploys all the singularity of his talent

Made using traditional hand-drawing techniques, The Illusionist is distinguished by an incomparable graphic style, except, perhaps, with that of the old Disney that Sylvain Chomet admires. The singularity of the line, the sought-after imperfection of the images and movements fully contribute to the depth of the subject. Beyond his poetry, his fantasy, The Illusionist portrays a humanity on the brink of the abyss, tried by loneliness, courageous and exhausted.

The singers in long dresses and cigarette smokers no longer have the age of their repertoire. The clowns are sad and the ventriloquists separate from their puppets as one takes leave of oneself. In the midst of this disenchanted world, the illusionist still struggles. It’s beautiful and funny, sweet and tragic, throbbing like life and sometimes twisting with sadness. As in The Triplets of BellevilleSylvain Chomet deploys in this animated film all the singularity of his talent.