1959: his voice booming, announces the start of the show. But the curtain does not want to know to open. To appease the public, was sent in haste on stage Tatischeff, the great illusionist. And the protests quickly turned into thunderous applause, while the lanky magician engages in the number of flowers from tissue and rabbit (obese) from the cylinder. Thus begins, with these images in a strict black and white classic, "The Illusionist" the new film by Sylvain Chomet, author of the spectacular and poetic "The Triplets of Belleville" in 2003.
Distributed in Italy by Sacher Nanni Moretti (and shamefully released in one cinema in the province of Milan &; remember, the next time you hear about safeguarding bondi Culture), the second by the French director is taken from an original screenplay by Jacques Tatischeff, one of the most famous French artists, who died in 1982. It is therefore no coincidence that the protagonist of this poetic, poignant animated classic (remember this the next time a biNbominKia in pectore will magnify the emotions of treddì) is precisely the animated version of the great French actor and director, nor that Chomet has added to the original version some biographical elements and gifts to celebrate both Tati himself as an art form as irretrievably lost for ever: that of vaudeville, the artists who did their best to entertain and have fun with their audiences, without worrying too much cash is collected.
art for art's sake, to satisfy themselves, rather than to get the villa in Monaco. Ventriloquists, clowns, magicians, as they both finished the dregs foul-mouthed and lacking in talent that plagued the television stage, and from there then overflows into the theater, remains a mystery. Or maybe not, maybe the answer is all in an increasingly listless, distracted, falsely demanding, ready to scream hysterically for the boy band of the moment as he is unavailable to give space and attention to the great artists of the past, destined to endless pilgrimages embarrassing to perform in festivals open-air taverns and third-rate.
Just one of these, more and more disheartened Tatischeff meet Alice, a girl so impressed with his tricks that he decided to leave his life as a scullery maid to follow him to Edinburgh. A delicate relationship, the other, made up of gestures and glances, even before the words. Yes, because to further underscore the lack of communication between the protagonist, the repository of a past of honesty and commitment, and the new spreads, because of phenomena "use-and-dispose" of noise and glitter (Emblematic in this sense The sequence with the rising stars of music rock, or the one with the juke box), the film is almost completely silent, a few dialogues, always in original language, with Alice, which is expressed in his Scottish Tatischeff mumbled in French essential, direct and friendly.
few words, yes, because the gestures are talking. The smiles and the kindness of the girl to the old illusion, nell'ingenua belief that he is really a magician like fairy tales. Small gifts and sacrifices with which he thanked his unexpected companion, able with his enthusiasm to give back a minimum of self-confidence, purpose. A quirky family, he her, the obese and short-tempered rabbit, which does not want to sit in the cylinder and never fails to bite anyone who approaches.
In its way, a happy family (we laugh and not a little taste, in fact) despite Tatischeff to agree to work more and more humiliating and deal with the pettiness of people who only think about profit. Maybe he thought he could do it, the great illusion, to survive the rampant cynicism, perhaps thinking that the fate of many other colleagues, he would not be touched. At least, not until Alice would have believed in him. It was a Hollywood movie, a happy ending in this way would have been granted. Nor were the ventriloquist increasingly less and less attached to the bottle and his snowman, or clown, which (unwittingly) saved from suicide by a plate of rabbit stew (!!!!) prepared by Alice. Or, if there were, they would have a very different role. Caricaturist and comforting. Chomet, however, does not seek to reassure us, let alone think of getting away with a sloppy final.
Destiny is all there, in that doll in the window of an abandoned junk. In its former owner, forced to beg. In the casual glance out the window of Alice's Room hotel he shares with his foster father. So little is enough to break the spell last illusionist, so little to call it, hard, reality. In a ruthless game of contrasts, the fate takes its course, inevitable, bitter, hopeless. Under a driving rain, the streets are divided, the lights go out, does not remain even more time, or inclination, for a final spell. Everything is finished, but no tears. Already, when the lights are ablaze in the room, crying on the shoulder of my friend (from what I held in tears? If it were not for her, how much longer I would have foolishly kept inside of me?). Tatischeff crying for the ventriloquist, clown, Alice ... but especially for the rabbit. I cried because I felt, as never before, the weight of what we are losing every day, every day of what we throw in those processes which are voracious our lives, punctuated by the frenetic pace and false models. I was crying, and I'm a bit ashamed 'of myself. Even now, looking back, I shed a tear line, the face, preventing me from seeing the screen. And I finally understand. This is the last great prodigy illusionist, even more than the rabbit from the hat, to draw out the feelings of someone so vivid and deep. I was the only one in the world to have reacted like that. Magic, after all, exist. Just knowing how to see.
The Illusionist-Sylvain Chomet
Animation, 80 minutes
France-Great Britain 2010
Distributed in Italy by Sacher
NOT theatrical release on October 29
-Quote of the Day: "The magic does not exist." (Tatischeff, in his farewell note to Alice)
0 comments:
Post a Comment