1. L‟ILLUSIONNISTE
directed by Sylvain Chomet, 2010
written by Jacques Tati, 1956
Presented By:
Viet Block
Adreanne Manalang
Alyssa Stonelake
Daniel West

2. CONTRIBUTIONS BY:
Introduction Film & Topic
Contributions
PowerPoint Designer
Adreanne Manalang
Theme
Storyline
Style
Daniel West
Background Information
History
Character Analysis
Alyssa Stonelake
Cultural Aspects
Video Clip
Discussion Questions
Viet Block

3. JACQUES TATISCHEFF
Writer of L'Illusionniste, 1956
a French filmmaker, comic, actor, writer
and director.
Jacques Tati's response to his shame of abandoning his first child during World
War II.
Wrote “L‟Illusionniste” in attempt to reconnect with eldest daughter, Helga
Marie-Jeanne Schiel.

4. BACKGROUND INFO: JACQUES TATI
 His real name was Jacques Tatischeff and born
on October 9th, 1908 in Yvelines in France
 More into sports like rugby, tennis and boxing
 Got into acting on stage because in changing
rooms he would "mime his sporting activities to
his team mates"
 Started appearing in shows in Paris' theatres
and musical halls in 1930 creating big success
 Had a daughter in 1943 named Helga Marie-
Jeanne who he abandoned during World War II
 He also had another daughter named Sophie
Tatischeff in 1946.

5. HISTORY OF JACQUES TATI
 He was tormented during the 50's because he felt guilty of leaving behind
Helga in the 40's but also didn't come to her rescue when she wrote to him
having been in the center of the Christmas Eve bombing during the Moroccan
1955 uprising.
 He had two other unproduced scripts along with l'Illusionniste including one
written about The Occupation of Berlin and Confusion
 His last project was Confusion yet it had to end early on stage because of him
dying on November 5th, 1982 in Paris from pulmonary embolism and in debt

6. JACQUES TATI‟S CAREER:
• His films were usually "characteristically plot-less
physical comedies, sometimes resembling silent
comedies of the 1920's" according to James Travers &
tried to not offend anyone or be obviously political so
his films could be seen anywhere
• Two of his famous short films, Oscar Champion De
Tennis & Soigne ton gauche
• Wanted to create Jour De Fete a short film of his into
color, but his thoughts were ahead of the technology
• 1958 he directed Mon Oncle which won a Jury Prize in
Cannes in France and an Academy Award in America.
• Playtime in 1967 was too ambitious of his and failed to
live to his standards in cinemas

7. SYLVAIN CHOMET
Creator of L’Illusioniste, 2010
·In June 2010 during an interview, Chomet‟s motive and personal reasons for pursuing
“L‟Illusionniste” were:
"I have two young children, a four-year-old and a two-year-old. But I
also have a daughter who is 17 who I don't live with because I separated
from her mother. She was 12 when I started the project and you can feel
things changing."
 ·It appears to be, that Chomet mirrors the regret of a broken father-child-relationship that
Tati had with his daughter Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel.

8. BEHIND THE SCENES:
 Sophie Tatischeff gave the script of The Illusionist to Chomet, yet his grandson Richard
McDonald explained the backstory
 Originally the movie was written that the illusionist travels to a small town in Czechoslovakia
where he meets the girl and takes her to Prague; Chomet changes it to Edinburgh, Scotland
 Chomet comments to Herald Scotland that:
"When I came for the premiere of "Bellville" in 2003, I took the train from my home in France to
Edinburgh with my daughter... We arrived and I thought it was the most beautiful city I had ever
seen... There's something about the constantly changing light that is magical."

9. CONTINUATION:
 The original story explains how the girl doesn't know that the illusionist magic is
fake until her boyfriend exposes him of his fake magic
 He leaves the girl behind because he could not win the affections of the girl
again and now is free of his life deceit as a conjurer
 In real life he does take on a father daughter relationship to a girl named Natalie
 According to Robert Ebert who interviewed Richard McDonald:
 "The very title, "l'Illusionniste," illustrates how Tati was aware at how his public
persona was a veil that contradicted the real man. Conjurers by their very craft are
deceitful."

10. VIDEO CLIPS OF “THE
ILLUSIONIST”
 Tough Crowd:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Lmsukmz3QQE
 Fat Lady Singing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d7OeDwkfTg&list=PL9D7B0AAB3687C965
 Exploring Edinburgh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgNZ6R5Rbg&list=PL9D7B0AAB3687C965
 Rabbit: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturevideo/filmvideo/film-
clips/7953946/The-Illusionist-Clip-Rabbit.html

11. INTRO TO CHARACTERS
TATISCHEFF
 A classic French man desiring to keep his dream of being
an illusionist alive due to other forms of entertainment is the
protagonist of The Illusionist. Respect is important to him,
respecting all and hopes to get it back. He travels around in
order to avoid being outshined which is how he becomes a
father figure to Alice. He impresses her with his magic and
takes her under his wing by buying gifts for her while they
travel together. At times he fails to be a father due to trying
to help Alice with by buying nice clothes. Sadly, he pushes
her away unintentionally and leaves her when he realizes that
his dream is gone which he had to sell his magic kit, sets free
his bunny and leaves for somewhere else looking at a photo
that carries with him in the movie.

12. CHARACTER:
ALICE
 Alice is a young girl that meets Tatischeff when he
travels to a small town in Scotland. She is fascinated by the
world of magic that Tatischeff brought to the small town
and is seen as a daughter to Tatischeff. She is a very kind and
friendly girl everyone: Tatischeff, the bunny and a group of
entertainers. A flaw of Alice's, however, is that she is naïve
about the world outside her small town on an island of
Scotland. She is admired by very expensive items and desires
to own them yet she doesn‟t realize that they are expensive
due to her upbringing on the island. She does meet a
handsome man at the end and decides to live with him when
Tatischeff leaves her with money and a note.

13. CHARACTER:
THE BUNNY
 This grumpy bunny resists Tatischeff by not wanting
to go into the hat, biting him or anyone that comes near
him and tries to hide. One point of time he is recaptured
by a stage manager with a net and tries to bite both of
them. When Alice meets him, he actually bites her when
she sees him in his cage at first. He does change though
throughout the movie because of Alice‟s kindness towards
the bunny. The main scene of the bunny is at the very end
when Tatischeff recaptures the bunny in the cage and
brings him to a hill where there are other bunnies. He
decides to let the bunny go on the hill and when he leaves,
the bunny watches him go with a questioned look. Even
though the bunny is a small, supportive character, his
presence in the movie brings up lots of representations and
different interpretations.

14. STORYLINE OF L‟ILLUSIONNISTE
 The Illusionist (Tatischeff), is part of a dying breed of stage
performers. During the early 1950’s the art of illusion, and
miming were becoming outdated and overrun by the
emerging rock and roll culture. Because of this, Tatischeff
starts taking obscure gigs at far away events, small cafes,
and dive bars. These small performances soon tale the
illusionist to the coast of Scotland, where technology is
lacking (they barely have electricity). This is where the
Tatischeffmeets Alice, a young woman who soon becomes a
big part of his life.

15. … C O N T I N UAT I O N
 Alice is a worker at the local inn where Tatischeffis performing.
He notices that the family is quite poor and Alice could make use of a
new pair of shoes. After purchasing her shoes at a local store, he
leads her, and the rest of the children at the in to believe that he can
make material possessions appear from nothing.. Alice therefore
believes that his tricks are real magic.
 Alice proceeds to stow away on the ship that brings Tatischeff
back to Edinburgh. Here they fall into a Father/Daughter relationship
and bond over small acts of kindness.

16. … . C O N T I N UAT I O N
 As Alice grows, the Illusionist gets older. She falls in love
with a neighbor, and becomes less and less interested in
Tatischeff’s magic. He soon reveals his secret, and goes on
living a life alone where he is a much wiser man because of
his experience with his experience as a magician, and
especially because of his interactions with Alice.
 Tatischeff begins working locally at a small theatre while
Alice cooks, and cleans up up the house. As this proceeds,
the illusionist continues to give Alice lavish gifts. She still
believes his tricks are real magic.

17.  The Cold War began after World War II
 1950's: Rock n' Roll music like Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and
Ray Charles become popular and films in theaters grew in popularity
 1952: Elizabeth II succeeds George VI for the UK
 1954: French Indochina began to fall and retreated from Vietnam
 1955: Commercial television starts with first ITV broadcast in the UK
 1956: Last tram runs in Edinburgh, Scotland
 During 1958-1961, The Berlin Crisis was occurring in which Russia gave an
ultimatum to France, Britain and the US to leave West Berlin
UNITED KINGDOM &
FRANCE IN THE 1950‟S

18. D W IN D LIN G POPU LAR ITY OF STAGE
MAGIC : BEIN G TAKEN OVER BY
MOD ER N EN TERTAIN MEN T
• Stage performance was
very popular until the
rise of the Rock and Roll
movement of the 1950‟s.
• Music, as well as modern
film, diminished the
popularity of stage
performers.

19. HISTORY OF
ILLUSION
• Magicians or Illusionists have been popular
even back in Egyptian times yet became
popular in the 1700's
• For a while, illusionists performed mostly at
fairs, yet they became less popular forcing
them to head to the cities
• To make them more popular, illusionists
added in the late 18th century science into
their illusions and held lectures about science
then performed their tricks
• Science is what drew in the upper class
because of that concert halls were built for
them and other forms of entertainment

20. ILLUSION:
- The next stage was that their shows had to change because
of them being stationary in cities. Some illusionists would
perform a short show and go on the road for years with the
show while others had different shows that they would change
- Even before 1950's, this form of entertainment was already
under threat of dying in the mid-30's because of films
- The Illusionist shows this with rock n' roll music instead of
movies and television on how some illusionists can survive the
new generation while some are unlucky in the business like
Tatischeff

21. ILLUSION:
 Some illusionists decided to hop on board with the movies by moving their business
to the big screen or the little screen at home when televisions were becoming popular
 This helped magic to stay alive for the next generation
"Gifted with intelligence, curiosity, and imagination, one can wonder how the world might have changed
had these conjurers chosen the fields of of science or medicine in which to pour their genius.”
-David Copperfield

22. CREATING THE MOVIE:
• Sylvain Chomet is one of
the leading animators, next
to Pixar and Dreamworks.
• The entire film is hand
drawn by Sylvain Chomet
and his team
• It takes two weeks to draw
the animation for five
seconds of film
• It takes Chomet two years
to draw out an entire film.

23. FILM STYLE:
• Instead of using computers to assist in the
animation process, Chomet stacks each
frame on top of eachother in order to get
the feel of the animation progression.
• This process is arduous, but in the end
gives a real life-like quality to his
animations
• Chomet then scans each frame into a
computer where a line test is drawn.
• A line test is the animation progression
where only the outline of the characters
and objects are drawn in without color
and shading.

24. FIL M STY L E :
• Chomet does almost all of his
work by hand, but some
elements need to be run
through a computer to give a
more mechanical essence.
• Man-made machinery, such as
cars, trucks, and motorcycles
are the only computer
generated elements of
chomets film.

25. CULTURAL ASPECTS: FRANCE
 Tatischeff‟s journey begins in 1959 Paris, where illusionists have
entertained since the 1840‟s. Widely considered the father of modern
magic, Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (1805-1871) opened one of the
first renowned theatres in the city. He also inspired Harry Houdini‟s
stage name.
 Stage magic isn‟t popular like it used to be and Tatischeff heads to
London.

26. CULTURAL ASPECTS: LONDON
 Post WWII, Britain‟s economy is booming once again. With credit readily
available, television becomes the new favorite past time. Although colored TV
broadcasts were introduced in 1953, most people didn‟t get a colored TV until the
mid 60‟s. Tati can only find a gig following a rock & roll band. No one stays to
watch him perform except a drunk. Newly invented in the start of the decade, rock
& roll came to Britain from America in the second half of the 50‟s.
 With significant cultural changes as TV and the lead up to the “British invasion”
in rock, Tati‟s magic skills are left in the dust.

27. CULTURAL ASPECTS: SCOTLAND
 The drunk invites him to perform at his Scotland pub in the Isle of
Iona in the Inner Hebrides. Finally he has a welcome crowd, until they get
a pub jukebox.
 Director Chomet specifically chose this location because, “When I
read the island‟s local history, I was astounded to discover that at exactly
the same period in which the Tati story is set, the islanders celebrated the
arrival of electricity from the mainland. So it made perfect sense or the
illusionist to be playing in these last outreaches of vaudeville.”

28. CULTURAL ASPECTS CONT.
 Many of Jacques Tati‟s films pondered the effect of too much
technology on society. In all three countries Tatischeff performs, the
cultural revolution of a new modern era can be seen. The final scenes
are him on a train, watching the city lights fade out except for the TVs
in a shop window. Also in the window is a ventriloquist dummy with a
price tag saying “free”. Just like stage magic, another form of
entertainment is dying.

29. WORK CITED
 “A Brief History of Television.” History of Television. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2013. http://www.historyoftelevision.net.
 “Britain in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.” Retrowow. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2013.
http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_britain/retro_britain.html.
 “Britain: 1945 to Present.” BBC – History: British History Timeline. N.p. N.d. Web. 26 May 2013.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/present_timeline_noflash.shtml.
 Copperfield, David. "A Delicate Sleight of Hand: Magic and the History of Illusion." Omni. 17.2 (1994). Print.
 “Early Magic Around the World.” Magic: the Science of Illusion. N.p. N.d. Web. 26 May 2013.
http://www.magicexhibit.org/story/story_hist_1750.html.
 Ebert, Roger, and Richard McDonald. "The private torment behind Tati's "The Illusionist".“ Movie Reviewss
and Ratings by Film Critic Roger Ebert | Roger Ebert. N.p., 2 June 2010. Web. 26 May 2013.
http://www.rogerebert.com/letters/the-private-torment-behind-tatis-the-illusionist.
 "Family Films: Animation of "The Illusionist" Allures in Ways beyond Words." - The Denver Post. Web. 28 May
2013.

30. WORK CITED
 “The Golden Age of Magic 1750-1930.” Magic: the Science of Illusion. N.p. N.d. Web. 26 May 2013.
http://www.magicexhibit.org/story/story_hist_1930.html.
 Interview: Sylvain Chomet, film director" Ramaswamy, Chitra. The Scotsman. 14 June 2010.
 Lachapelle, Sofie. "Science on Stage: Amusing Physics and Scientific Wonder at the Nineteenth-Century French Theatre.“
History of Science. 47 (2047): 297--315. Print.
 ”L'illusionniste." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 28 May 2013.
 “Magic Changes with the Times 1930-1975.” Magic: the Science of Illusion. N.p. N.d. Web. 26 May 2013.
http://www.magicexhibit.org/story/story_hist_1975.html.
 MAGICAL REALISM." : HISTORY. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2013.
 Matheou, Demetrios. “Why Sylvain Chomet chose Scotland for the Movie Magic of The
Illusionist.” Herald Scotland. N.p. 15 June 2010. Web. 26 May 2013. http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/more-
arts-entertainment-news/why-sylvain-chomet-chose-scotland-for-the-movie-magic-of-the-illusionist-1.1034933.
 “Milestones: 1953-1960: The Berlin Crisis, 1958-1961.” U.S. Department of State: Office of the
Historian. N.p. N.d. Web. 26 May 2013. http://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/BerlinCrises.

31. WORK CITED
 “Milestones: 1953-1960: Dien Bien Phu & the Fall of French Indochina, 1954.” U.S. Department of
State: Office of Historian. N.p. N.d. Web. 26 May 2013. http://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-
1960/DienBienPhu.
 movieclipsFILMI. (2011, May 31) “The Illusionist #1 Movie CLIP – Tough Crowd (2010) HD.” [Video
File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmsukmz3QQE&list=PL9D7B0AAB3687C965
 movieclipsFILMI. (2011, May 30) “The Illusionist #2 Movie CLIP – The Fat Lady‟s Singing (2010) HD.”
[Video File]. Retrieved from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d7OeDwkfTg&list=PL9D7B0AAB3687C965.
 movieclipsFILMI. (2011, May 31) “The Illusionist #4 Movie CLIP – Exploring Edinburgh (2010) HD.”
[Video File]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSgNZ6R5Rbg&list=PL9D7B0AAB3687C965.
 “People & Events: Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin (1905-1871).” PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. N.p., n.d. Web.
30 May 2013. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/houdini/peopleevents/pande03.html.
 “Tati meets Chomet in The Illusionist''". Theplayground.co.uk. 2012-05-28. Retrieved 2012-06-09.

32. WORK CITED
 Taylor, Sam. "The Relative Un·known." : Sylvain Chomet Talks about Animation. BBC, 10 Sept. 2012.
Web. 28 May 2013.
 Thorpe, Vanessa. "Jacques Tati's lost film reveals family's pain." The Guardian/The Observer 30 Jan. 2010: The
Observer. Web. 18 May 2013. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/31/jacques-tati-lost-film-family-
illusionniste>.
 Travers, James. “Jacques Tati.” filmsdefrance.com. N.p. 2002. Web. 26 May 2013.
http://filmsdefrance.com/FDF_jtati.html.
 “Undiscovered Scotland: Timeline of Scottish History: 1950 to Present.” Undiscovered Scotland: The
Ultimate Online Guide. N.p. N.d. Web. 26 May 2013.
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 “Video: The Illusionist Clip- Rabbit – Telegraph.” Telegraph.co.uk –Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday
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 “100 Greatest Rock „n‟ Roll Artists of the 1950s.” DigitalDreamDoor.com - Index for Greatest Music,
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