Synopsis
The Illusionist (L'Illusionniste, 2010) is Sylvain Chomet's hand-drawn animated film you can watch online on iFILM. It is the late 1950s, and an aging French magician is losing his audience as rock and roll and television push his old-fashioned act offstage.
Looking for work, the performer drifts to Scotland and lands in a remote village where the locals mistake his tricks for the real thing. A young maid named Alice believes he is a true wizard and follows him to Edinburgh. What unfolds is a nearly wordless story about two people who share no language yet quietly come to depend on each other. He keeps up the wizard act for her sake, spending his last coins on gifts she takes for magic.
The screenplay grew from an unfilmed script by Jacques Tati, and his signature pantomime lives on in every gesture the magician makes. Chomet paints Edinburgh in soft watercolor and trusts movement and music over dialogue. The film earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and stands among the saddest animated stories ever made about growing up and letting go. Stream The Illusionist (2010) online on iFILM.
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