Archive of films Illusionist / The Illusionist

United Kingdom / France
2010, 85 min

Section: Horizons
Year: 2010

No-one pays attention anymore to an aging stage entertainer doing the same old magic tricks day in, day out. So off he goes to distant Scotland, where he finally finds a loyal fan – a young girl who believes that this stranger is able to perform real magic... This nostalgic, old-worldly animated film by Sylvain Chomet is based on an unrealised script written in 1956 by French actor and director Jacques Tati as a letter to his estranged illegitimate daughter.

Synopsis

It’s the late 1950s and no-one pays attention anymore to an aging stage entertainer doing the same old magic tricks, when all they want now is loud rock music. One day our hero swaps his humiliating existence as a fringe magician for a distant journey at whose end – in remote Scotland – he finds a loyal fan who will change his life forever. She is convinced that this stranger is able to perform real magic.... This nostalgic, old-worldly animated film by Sylvain Chomet is based on an unrealised script written in 1956 by French actor and director Jacques Tati as a letter to his estranged illegitimate daughter, Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel. Accordingly, in Chomet’s view, this isn’t a film about a love story, but more about the relationship between father and daughter. The animated hero is a tribute to Monsieur Hulot, the character Tati created in screen comedies such as My Uncle (1958) and Playtime (1967).

About the director

Sylvain Chomet (b. 1963, Maisons-Laffitte, France) graduated from the newly founded comic art studio at the School of Fine Arts in Angoulême (1987). He acquired his first professional experience with animated film as an assistant in Richard Purdum’s London studio and, at the end of the 1980s, he was involved in advertising (e.g. Renault, Swissair). After returning to France he established a graphic studio in Montpellier, but then moved to Québec in 1993, where he made the animated short The Old Lady and the Pigeons (La vieille dame et les pigeons, 1997 – BAFTA Award, Grand Prix at the Annecy IFF). In 2002 he made his first feature film The Triplets of Belleville (Les triplettes de Belleville), which was followed by the feature segment "Tour Eiffel” from the collection of film stories Paris, je t’aime (2006) and the feature film The Illusionist.

Contacts

Hollywood Classic Entertainment
Psohlavců 8, 147 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 226 224 111
Fax: +420 226 224 110
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.hce.cz

Pathé International
6 Ramillies St., W1F 7TY, London
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 323 5151
Fax: +44 207 631 3568
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.patheinternational.com

35 MM
Psohlavců 8, 147 00, Praha 4
Czech Republic
Tel: +420 244 464 135
Fax: +420 244 464 395
E-mail: [email protected]

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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Horizons

Director:	Sylvain Chomet
Screenplay:	Sylvain Chomet podle původního scénáře Jacquese Tatiho / Sylvain Chomet based on the original script by Jacques Tati
Music:	Sylvain Chomet
Editor:	Sylvain Chomet
Producer:	Bob Last, Sally Chomet
Production:	Django Films Ltd.
Contact:	Hollywood Classic Entertainment, Pathé International, 35 MM
Distributor:	35 MM

www:	www.lillusionniste-lefilm.com

Guests

Marta Vaněčková

Distributor

Michal Kroupa

Distributor, Distributor