Jacques Tati: Actor, Director, Animated Character?

Jacques Tati is a name that is well known amongst the Criterion Collection. With such films as M. Hulot’s Holiday (1953, Spine #110), Mon Oncle (1958, Spine #111), Playtime (1967, Spine #112) and Trafic (1971, Spine #439) in the collection already, is there any surprise that Tati is still an inspiration for filmmakers around the world, still in his home country of France. Even animators look to him as a source of comedic genius and always want to replicate what he’s done on the big screen.

Which is exactly what Sylvain Chomet, who did the wonderfully animated film The Triplets of Belleville has done with his new film, The Illusionist. Not to be mistakened for the Edward Norton starrer, this ‘illusionist’ is about an older magician who might have lost the spark of his entertainment business. What’s uncanny is the eerie resemblance to an aged Jacques Tati this magician has.

I’m a bit excited about this film, considering The Triplets of Belleville is one of my favorite animated films in the last decade. Chomet has such a great visual presence that this clip alone gets me excited about this film sooner rather than later.

It is based on an un-produced script Tati had written in 1956 with Henri Marquet in between Mon Oncle and Playtime, which was initially a personal letter to his estranged daughter, Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel. It’s being produced by Pathe Pictures.

The clip below is from Twitch and is from a Russian site and shows more of what makes Chomet a force to be reckoned with in the animation business. It looks to be a love letter to the late great director, who was daring in his execution and had a wit about him that is hard to replicate. It’s something about both of these directors, while born in different eras themselves, have the same sensibility about them.

Plus it’s hand drawn animation, which tends to be a shocker in today’s animated field. Considering the film industry would rather take a shortcut and release everything (excluding Pixar, of course). This also begs the question to Criterion. What will their first official animated film be in the collection?

Source: Slashfilm.com

Trailer courtesy of TwitchFilm.net