Sony Pictures Classics To Distribute Animated Jacques Tati Film, Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist

Exciting news for fans of Jacques Tati and Sylvain Chomet because Chomet’s film, The Illusionist, has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics in North America. It is based on an unproduced screenplay by the late great Jacques Tati and is directed by Sylvain Chomet, who became an international sensation when his Academy Award nominated film The Triplets of Bellville, which Sony Classics also distributed, came out in 2003.

The film was a smash at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year when it premiered as a Berlinale Special Selection.

‘The story, set mainly in Edinburgh, Scotland, takes place at the dawn of television and rock & roll, featuring a circus of live performers who are on their way out as audiences embrace new types of entertainment,’ indieWIRE described upon the film’s Berlin premiere. ‘With the film, Chomet has created more of an homage to Tati, rather than trying to replicate the French filmmaker’s work and create a movie that seems like Tati directed it. It’s a story infused with a mix of sadness, charm and humor as it looks back at a time of considerable change, offering a window into the ‘˜50s. With very little dialogue’”the French magician and the Scottish girl can’t communicate’”the story unfolds in traditional pencil sketch animation.’

It’s interesting to see that Chomet is again working without the use of a dialogue driven narrative and is using traditional animation with his own unique twist. We’ve already spoken about this film when it was announced and it has been in our most anticipated films for this year.

It makes us here at the Criterion Cast very happy, because for one we love Jacques Tati and all his films that are featured in the Criterion Collection and two, it makes us wonder if this film will be the first animated film in the pantheon of the Criterion Collection. With this and the Secret of Kells as two very highly regarded works of animation and film making in general, only time will tell if Criterion will take the plunge in the realm of animation.

Source: indieWIRE