The latest animated film by acclaimed director Sylvain Chomet, The Illusionist can be seen as a simple eulogy for an extinct way of life. The film takes place in a melancholy Edinburgh populated by aging vaudevillian performers trying to stay alive in a fast-changing modern world that has left them behind. We center on Tatischeff, an old-school magician finding it harder to book gigs. It's 1959 and the kids aren't interested in magicians and jugglers anymore, not when they have trendy young rock 'n' roll bands nabbing their attention. Our lonely entertainer travels around the U.K. looking desperately for an audience, finding temporary work in a seaside town in Scotland.
In a striking scene early in the film we see a group of kilted drunks dancing and playing bagpipes in a Scottish pub where Taticheff performs. The gorgeous scene is lit by gas lanterns and candlelight — that is until the owner turns them all off and decides to install one of those newfangled light bulbs. The light in the scene changes completely; now it's colder and uninviting. A jukebox is then dragged in from another room and begins to blast rock 'n' roll. The pub now looks like it could be anywhere, and our magician is about to lose his job to a machine.
In this respect, this small, artsy animated movie has a lot in common with its Oscar competitor, Toy Story 3: Both films are about the people society no longer has a use for.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.