In Contention

Tag: The Illusionist

  • Brit critics flip for ‘The Illusionist’

    Yeah, yeah, everybody loves “Toy Story 3.” Enchanting, amusing, heartbreaking… all those swell things. We hear it every year: Pixar shames every other Hollywood studio, transcends the limits of animation, etc, etc. Pencil in a second consecutive Best Picture nomination, and stick a fork in the Best Animated Feature race — for the fourth year running.

    Except it shouldn’t be that easy. Pixar may have expertly capped a beloved film franchise, but they haven’t made the best animated film of the year. That title, bar a late-year surprise, goes to Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist,” which knocked me out at the Berlinale in February and thoroughly sustained the magic on a second viewing this weekend.

    It occurred to me that the visually rapturous film, a beyond-the-grave collaboration with French comic master Jacques Tati, would form a neat (if very moist-eyed) double feature with the Pixar juggernaut: both take a melancholic approach to themes of growing up and letting go, but it’s the Chomet film I found more searching and soulful.

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  • Now what?

    With “Inception” very nearly upon us, those of you who have been salivating over Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster for months on end will need to find something else to look forward to. Call it waiting withdrawal, if you will.

    Happily, the good folks of In Review Online have compiled a handy list of their 25 most anticipated films due in the latter half of 2010 (or later, depending on the US distribution situation). Thanks mostly to my festival exploits of the past year, I’ve already seen nine of them, most of them well worth waiting for — and the InRO editors were kind enough to invite me to write up my favorite film of the year thus far, Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist,” for the list:

    If seven years seems like a long time to have waited for a feature-length follow-up to French animator Sylvain Chomet’s cheerfully batty “The Triplets of Belleville,” the intricacy of the hand-drawn imagery on display in “The Illusionist” should put you in a forgiving mood. (Beauty shouldn’t be rushed, as Heidi Montag could well tell you.) It’s been some time since we’ve heard from Jacques Tati, too, though his entirely reasonable excuse is that he’s been dead for 27 years.

    Read the rest, and their thoughts on 24 other films, here. No prizes for guessing their (and everyone else’s) #1.

  • Combing through the first-half contenders

    With the year nearly at its midway point, the Hollywood Reporter’s Gregg Kilday has taken on the rather fruitless task of sussing out potential Oscar contenders from the last six months of releases. As you will no doubt be shocked to hear, he doesn’t find many — declaring “Toy Story 3” the year’s first viable Best Picture nominee (just as Pixar’s “Up” wound up as the earliest release on the 2009 slate).

    Not that this is a particularly new phenomenon. Bar the occasional “Crash,” “Erin Brockovich” or “The Silence of the Lambs” — films that tend to grow into their Oscar-contender status rather than have it thrust upon them — studios tend to save their prestige product for the year’s latter stages. Everyone and their pet lizard knows that.

    But as Kilday points out, considering last year’s expansion of the Best Picture field was a shameless grab for more blockbuster nominees, none of this year’s summer (or spring) behemoths up to now could be deemed credible contenders. (That he even bothers to consider the chances of “Alice in Wonderland” is cause for major shuddering.)

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  • Edinburgh fest kicks off with ‘The Illusionist’

    Last year’s Edinburgh Film Festival served me rather well, giving me my first look at “Antichrist,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Fish Tank,” “35 Shots of Rum,” “Mary and Max” and “London River,” all of which wound up in my Top 20 of 2009. (It was also where a little film called “The Secret of Kells” made its first awards bow, more than seven months before Hollywood cottoned on to it.)

    This year’s edition begins today; unfortunately, I’m unable to cover the entire fest this time, though I will be there for five days next week. Thanks to my other festival exploits this year, however, I am already acquainted with tonight’s opening film, “The Illusionist.”

    I reviewed Sylvain Chomet’s sublime beyond-the-grave Jacques Tati collaboration out of Berlin in February, and the film still sits comfortably atop my Best of 2010 list. Tonight’s Edinburgh premiere should be a sweet one, given how besotted the film is with that very city.

    More on the film, including a new trailer, after the cut.

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  • Sony Classics adopts ‘The Illusionist’

    Quelle surprise. “The Illusionist,” Sylvain Chomet’s long-gestating follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “The Triplets of Belleville,” has found the US distributor we all knew it eventually would. Sony Pictures Classics today announced their acquisition of the film, which they are readying for an end-of-year release — mirroring the strategy they took with “Belleville” back in 2003.

    In doing so, Sony has all but secured its first Oscar nomination of the 2010 season. “The Illusionist” — a riff on an unproduced Jacques Tati screenplay and handily, for me, the year’s best film so far — is too ravishing an animator’s showcase not to gain serious awards notice, and a late-2010 release should keep it fresh on the radar.

    In the meantime, the film will continue to wow on the festival circuit. It has already been selected to open the Edinburgh Film Festival in June — an ideal choice, given that the film is something of a valentine to the Scottish capital. Check out my review of the film from the Berlinale here, and an early Russian trailer here.

    Full press release from Sony after the cut.

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  • Russian trailer for ‘The Illusionist’

    A tip of the hat to Twitch for digging up a Russian trailer for Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist,” which I reviewed out of Berlin last month. Calling it my favorite film of 2010 is faint praise at this stage, but I’ll be surprised if 10 more films come along to top it. Either way, it’s certain to be in the animation awards discussion if/when it secures a US distributor.

    This trailer is oddly structured, to say the least, but you should get some idea of the visual splendor on offer.

  • A glimpse of ‘The Illusionist’

    The highlight of my Berlin trip last week, and handily my favorite film of this still-young year, Sylvain Chomet’s “The Illusionist” merits all the excruciating magic-based puns that critics will inevitably coin for it in 2010.

    To give you an idea of what I’m so excited about, the following Arte.tv video gives a taste of the rapturous animation on offer. (You’ll need to brush up on your French for the accompanying interview.) It’s one of those irritating self-starting affairs, so I’ve placed it after the cut.

    The Illusionist

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Top shots, Berlin coverage and more

    Paranormal Activity• You asked for it, you eventually got it: our annual list of the Top 10 shots of the year, part one and part two.

    • In our ongoing Oscar Guide series, we dug into the supporting actor, foreign language film, art direction, makeup and sound editing races.

    • Guy’s Berlinale coverage continued, with “The Illusionist,” “The Kids Are All Right” and “Winter’s Bone” among the highlights.

    • We interviewed “The Cove” director Louie Psihoyos, as well as the creative minds behind “Coraline,” Neil Gaiman and Henry Selick.

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  • BERLIN: Competition blues

    Jack Yao and Amber Kuo in Au Revoir, TaipeiLooking over my Berlinale coverage so far, the thing that surprises me is what a benevolent mood I seem to be in for much of it. By focusing principally on the titles that have impressed (or at least engaged) me, I’ve rather given the impression of a festival packed with delights.

    As good a time as I am having in the German capital, however, I’m afraid that’s not exactly the case. All around the festival center can be heard the collected grumblings of critics wondering what on earth is going to win the Golden Bear on Saturday — and not for richness of pickings, either.

    The festival’s Forum and Panorama strands have served up a number of strong entries, including consensus critical hits like “The Illusionist” and “Kawasaki Rose.” And the out-of-competition Sundance repeats have sustained their buzz from last month’s wintry festival: “Winter’s Bone,” in particular, is the title I’ve heard more in conversations with fellow critics than any other, and scarcely anyone has a bad word for “Exit Through the Gift Shop” or “The Kids Are All Right.”

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  • SHORT TAKE: “The Illusionist” (****)

    The IllusionistBerlin International Film Festival

    It took six days and an awful lot of films, but the Berlinale has finally turned up a masterpiece. Moreover, it’s a rare case of one of the fest’s most eagerly awaited titles managing to meet, and even subvert, expectations.

    “The Illusionist,” French animator Sylvain Chomet long-gestating follow-up the 2003 Oscar nominee “The Triplets of Belleville,” confirms a truly singular auteur sensibility, while revealing a more disciplined artist and storyteller within. A streamlined character study, less deliriously eccentric in tone and structure than his debut feature, “The Illusionist” nonetheless boasts an emotional heft that handsomely repays its creator’s restraint.

    Those who have been following the project will already know the reason for the newfound calm in Chomet’s quirk. “The Illusionist” is based on a previously unfilmed script by the late comic master Jacques Tati, and the film plays as a fascinating across-the-decades collaboration between two distinct voices (though given their shared preference for amusingly garbled dialogue, perhaps “distinct” isn’t the word) of French comedy: the tangling of Tati’s genial situational humor with Chomet’s more extravagant flights of fancy proves mutually enhancing.

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  • Edward Norton and the not-so-jolly green giant

    What can be said of the fearless Edward Norton, who recently became an on-screen comic book hero?  I never understood his choice to take on the role of Bruce Banner, a.k.a. The Incredible Hulk.  And now, post-release, I’m still puzzled.

    He walked into a franchise that became a fast mess just five years ago.  And according to IMDb, he turned the role down back then. Given the actor’s commitment to characterization in his performances, it makes sense that he would turn the other cheek.  After all, so much of Bruce Banner, or at the least what audiences might want to see, is a technological creation. Unlike any of the characters in “Iron Man” or in the upcoming “The Dark Knight,” Mr. Norton doesn’t get to sport a good makeup job and put his true talents on display. He has to disappear all together.  It seems so unlike him.

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