"Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville) has a new classic for us, droll, tender and packed with lively little jokes. Based on an unfilmed script by comic genius Jacques Tati, it’s the tale of a music hall magician who travels (with truculent white rabbit) from Paris to London to Scotland in pursuit of ever-smaller stages for his one-man show.
"Arriving on a far-flung Scottish isle on the very day that electricity first goes live, he finds himself playing adopted father to a sweetly wilful, impressionable young woman who thinks his magic is real. Set largely in Edinburgh in the late 50s, as vaudeville dwindles and rock ’n’ roll and television surge forth, The Illusionist is like Triplets’ wistful twin, precise and drily comic in the manner of Tati, but glowing with nostalgia for the antics of the old variety entertainers. It’s also an exquisitely rendered declaration of love for Scotland and for Edinburgh in particular. Chomet fell for the city when he presented Triplets at the Edinburgh Film Festival and settled there soon after. This film is steeped in its Georgian loveliness and Gothic splendours, the mists and shifting lights and shadows." (New Zealand International Film Festival 2010)
However much it conceals the real-life events that inspired it, it lives and breathes on its own, and as an extension of the mysterious whimsy of Tati.
Bittersweet, moving and utterly beautiful: a love letter to cinema and to Scotland.
An intricate jewel.
The Illusionist is both a modest homage to its writer and a melancholy look at a lost world.
An enchanting love letter to Jacques Tati.
We've been told the NZ release date for this flick is Thursday, 14th Apr 2011.
Release date: April 14th 2011.
We haven't received times for this movie in this location yet. However these are updated as cinemas announce them, so check back soon. Hopefully the lovely cinemas in your location will choose to play it shortly. ~Ed.
