The Illusionist (2010 film)

The Illusionist
Theatrical release poster
FrenchL'Illusionniste
Directed bySylvain Chomet
Written bySylvain Chomet
Based onThe Illusionist
by Jacques Tati
Produced bySally Chomet
Bob Last
StarringJean-Claude Donda
Eilidh Rankin
Edited bySylvain Chomet
Music bySylvain Chomet
Production
companies
Distributed byPathé Distribution (France)
Warner Bros. Entertainment UK (United Kingdom)[1]
Release dates
  • 16 June 2010 (2010-06-16) (France)
  • 20 August 2010 (2010-08-20) (United Kingdom)
Running time
79 minutes[2]
CountriesFrance
United Kingdom
LanguagesFrench
English
Gaelic
Budget$17 million[3]
Box office$6 million[3]

The Illusionist (French: L'Illusionniste) is a 2010 animated film written and directed by Sylvain Chomet. The film is based on an unproduced script written by French mime, director and actor Jacques Tati in 1956. Controversy surrounds Tati's motivation for the script, which was written as a personal letter to his estranged eldest daughter, Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel, in collaboration with his long-term writing partner Henri Marquet, between writing for the films Mon Oncle and Play Time.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

The main character is an elderly version of Tati, with hints of his character Monsieur Hulot. The plot revolves around a struggling illusionist who visits an isolated community and meets a young lady who is convinced that he is a real magician.[10] Chomet relocated the film, originally intended by Tati to be set in Czechoslovakia, to Scotland in the late 1950s.[10][11] According to the director, "It's not a romance, it's more the relationship between a dad and a daughter."[12] Sony's US press kit declares that the "script for The Illusionist was originally written by French comedy genius and cinema legend Jacques Tati as a love letter from a father to his daughter, but never produced".[13] The film received acclaim from critics, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, losing to Pixar's Toy Story 3.

The Illusionist was the last film to be distributed by Pathé theatrically in the United Kingdom before being shut down in 2009[citation needed] and focusing as a solo production company on British films starting in 2013 up until their shut down in November 2023.

  1. ^ "The Illusionist: Interview with Sylvain Chomet". August 2010.
  2. ^ "L'ILLUSIONNISTE (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. 26 May 2010. Retrieved 18 November 2012.
  3. ^ a b The Illusionist at Box Office Mojo
  4. ^ "In the Works: A black and white doc about shades of grey" Archived 26 April 2011 at the Wayback Machine by Alison Willmore. 02-21-2007. The Independent Eye film blog
  5. ^ "Cut The Cute" by Ian Johns (17 February 2007) in The Times
  6. ^ FIC123. "Jacques Tati Deux Temps Trois Mouvements". Fic123cultuurbox.blogspot.com. Retrieved 9 June 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ "Chomet Tackles Tati Script" Archived 11 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine Time Out. New York. Stefanou Eleni Stefanou (2007)
  8. ^ "La postérité de M. Hulot", David Bellos (2008-03-25)
  9. ^ "Jacques Tati Deux Temps Trois Mouvements" Archived 30 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Matthieu Orlean (8 May 2009). Cinémathèque Française
  10. ^ a b Pendreigh, Brian (22 June 2007) "Chomet's Magic Touch." The Guardian.
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference Scots animation? That rings a belle was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Comic genius Tati returns to screen in cartoon version of lost screenplay The Times by Brian Pendreigh, 2004-04-23
  13. ^ "Sony Classics The Illusionist Press Kit, 2010" (PDF). Retrieved 9 June 2012.