May 14, 2011 "The Illusionist" dir. Sylvain Chomet (2010) -DVD

Re-visiting "Triplets of Belleville" last year, I was surprised to note the high-level of combing that accompanied every pan and tilt, as well as the fuzziness that accompanied the outlines of characters. My memory of the theatrical release isn't strong enough to say with any certainty whether this is an effect of Chomet's animation process at the time, or simply the result of a poorly handled DVD transfer. In any case, the surface similarity of the two films' aesthetics meant that the discovery of "The Illusionist"'s smoother, richer compositions allowed me to feel as if I was being re-introduced to Chomet's style. It's a style whose  unhurried tempo can be easily construed as mournful or leisurely, and in this film, both adjectives feed off each other to illuminate the sense of exhilaration and ultimate resignation that makes up the spotty, often embarrassing, and always deeply felt lives of performers. The story is even more muffled than "Belleville"'s; a constantly traveling French magician in 1959 is followed to Edinburgh by a young barmaid whom he comes across while doing a gig somewhere in North Scotland. The girl may very well be his daughter. They stay together in a hotel room; the older man looks for work, and the younger woman strikes up friendships with the other artists in residence (a ventriloquist who of course communicates only through his dummy; an exhausted, distinctly unenthusiastic clown). The magician buys the girl a lovely white coat, and then a pair of similarly virginal heels. Concluding that he's fulfilled his duties in shepherding her into adulthood, he observes her on a date with a handsome, unthreatening Romeo, and quits the hotel room and the city for work elsewhere, leaving behind flowers and a note ("Magicians are not real").  Suffice to say that my favourite moment, wherein the middle-aged, out-of-work clown listens to a well-worn record of a treasured circus overture, was quickly replaced by the proceeding scene of the estranged father and daughter sitting down to another mostly silent meal while the joyous, regretful tune filters through the walls of their hotel room. The performer's search for that feeling of triumph, when they have re-created an imagined past and at last turned it into their present once again is ironically brought up against the genuine object from the past (the daughter) which has presented itself, and which simply cannot be understood, because the artist hasn't encountered it before, and will know it and long for it only when it is gone again, like a rabbit in a hat, or a piece of music.


-tableaux in both films - - -in "Belleville", the last two acts are more plot-driven, but they still share equal space with the side-stories and pieces of ephemera that are dominant in the more languid "Illusionist"

-Tati, of course; I've only seen "Playtime", and the clip from "Mon Oncle" that appears towards the end of this film, but it's easy to see why the film is mostly given over to little vignettes - - - and there is the scene where the magician helps the three acrobats put together the advertisement, and the boss observes from a room on the second floor with floor-to-ceiling glass windows  - - - definite shades of "Playtime"