Oleh / By: Iki.Ali
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| Director: Sylvain Chomet Producer: Sally Chomet, Bob Last Screenplay: Henry Marquet, Sylvain Chomet Genre: Animation / drama / comedy Starring: Jean-Claude Donda, Eilidh Rankin Release: June 16, 2010 Studio: Pathé, Django Films Distributor: Pathé, Sony Pictures Classics |
As dull as it may seem, but the uninspiring reality of the world of L'Illusionniste (The Illusionist), the 2010 French animated feature by Sylvain Chomet of Les Triplettes de Belleville (Triplets of Belleville) fame rings true, as it harshly and accurately reflected the situation
in which I have experienced yesterday as the screening in my faculty
happened; an almost empty theatre putting on an amazingly crafted and
detailed spectacle for the supposedly labeled 'film students' to ponder
upon (which consist of mostly the organisers including
myself and very few batch mates of mine).
It's
sad, it's bleak, but it's definitely inevitable. Who the heck cares
about foundation. Who the heck cares about the amount of effort being
put into doing something that might change the way you see things. You
see it everyday, but you didn't care about any of what is actually
happening behind the scenes, let alone the end product being presented
and sold that is very subjective in terms of how an audience accepts it.
The magician in this film greatly represents many of those who create
art, or who appreciates art as it is; something that plays with the mind
as you are being treated with a stunning visual piece that provoked
such things, but was never appreciated for what they have done. Art
exists with the purpose of toning down our dark times by providing a
visual therapy as means of temporal escapism. And magic shows among
other traditional forms of entertainment are no different than this. L'Illusionniste perfectly captures that irony, and boy it shows.
But
the attention-to-detail in mostly everything displayed within the film
and slightly heartwarming story did make up for the sadness. The art is a
cross between realism (thanks to the premise of the struggling magician
that sparked this atmosphere) and fantasy. I've never been to the
setting of the film (said to be grounded on the lands of Edinburgh), but
it looked amazingly full of life nonetheless. Animation wise, it
definitely put even the most advanced CGI animation or any of Disney
classic features to shame; the same amazing effort I saw in Les Triplettes de Belleville,
but more reality-grounded. Plot line wise, it is not quiet involving or
compelling. And did you notice how I didn't include the girl that
suddenly followed the magician to be a point of interest in my thought
on the feature? It's because she is not needed, and acted more as a
burden to the magician more than anything else, preventing me to get
into the misadventures of the magician very effectively.
All
in all, this animated feature is exactly what any struggling person,
especially those in the art or showbiz industry, what needs to be added
in your extensive list of films that you have to watch. Yes, it's
melancholic, but melancholy can be beautiful in its own way if it's done
right, and L'Illusionniste exemplifies this petty statement of mine. Please, please... for your own sake, watch this damn film.
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| This brief scene literally brought my fragile little heart to tears; and it is this scene that prompted me to say something about the feature. |
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