‘The Illusionist’ continues Sylvain Chomet’s cinematic wonders

Sylvain Chomet is a skilled French director who has brought several animated films to wondrous life. The Triplets of Belleville from a few years back still stands as one of the animated highlights of the last decade.

Now, we get The Illusionist (not to be confused with the similarly titled 2006 film starring Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti). This simple tale uses Chomet’s trademark style and clever wit, offering a story about an aging artist and his dying art form.

There are almost no words in The Illusionist, just stunning visuals and finely crafted characters. One of the best things about Chomet’s work is the way he captures landscapes and locales, and this is particularly true with The Illusionist. Whether it’s the streets of Paris or the windy roads of Edinburgh, Scotland, this is an artist’s rendition of Old Europe, and it looks beautiful.

When we first meet the title character, we find him out of work and in need of some theatrical gigs. His tried-and-true tricks of pulling bunnies out of hats are dated compared to the new boy bands that are making the circuit (in London, there is a great sequence where The Britoons, obviously modeled after The Beatles, take encore after encore while the illusionist waits in the wings for his time in the spotlight).

When the illusionist (he’s not given a name) eventually makes his way to Scotland, he stumbles across a young woman named Alice who becomes so enamored by the magician that she sticks around for his travels. The friendship that abounds between these two lost souls is heartwarming and overcome with a quiet dignity. In many ways, the two friends simply live life from gig to gig. They enjoy each other’s company, although there is some natural apprehension at first, and they decide to work side by side.

For some, Chomet’s work may come off as too simple. His plots are never complex, and his characters almost never talk. But in this simplicity he is able to find unbelievable humanity. Chomet is interested in those people living lives on the periphery, characters who have been forgotten and some times castigated from a technologically advanced society. Many times his creations are artists, people struggling to convey their message to the world. Along these lines, Chomet’s work seems almost autobiographical, as if The Illusionist were an adaptation of the director’s own work.

Perhaps there is something deeper to learn from this little movie. With the CGI orgies taking over movie screens and almost no one using the old tools of the trade when it comes to animation, The Illusionist, the movie, stands very much like the Illusionist, the character: A throwback to a bygone era where spinning a simple yarn could be as magical as any multi-million-dollar special effect.

For me, I’ll take the simplicity any day of the week.

• The Illusionist

• 2010

• Directed by Sylvain Chomet

• Written by Jacques Tati; adaptation by Chomet

• Running time: 80 minutes

• Rated PG for thematic elements and smoking

• Bubble score: 4 out of 4

• Click here to purchase The Illusionist on DVD.