The Illusionist

The Illusionist (French: L'Illusionniste) is a 2010 French-British animated comedy-drama film written and directed by Sylvain Chomet and based on an unproduced script written by French filmmaker and mime Jacques Tati in 1956. Set in the late 1950s, the story follows an aging stage illusionist whose act is overshadowed by the rising popularity of rock and roll, prompting him to visit an isolated Scottish community where he bonds with a young woman who is convinced he is a real magician. Controversy surrounds Tati's motivation for the script, which was written as a personal letter to his estranged eldest daughter, Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel, in collaboration with his long-term writing partner Henri Marquet, between writing for the films Mon Oncle and Play Time. Chomet relocated the film, originally intended by Tati to be set in Czechoslovakia, to Scotland in the late 1950s. According to the director, "It's not a romance, it's more the relationship between a dad and a daughter." Sony's US press kit declares that the "script for The Illusionist was originally written by French comedy genius and cinema legend Jacques Tati as a love letter from a father to his daughter, but never produced". The film received acclaim from critics, and was nominated for both Academy Award for Best Animated Feature and Annie Award for Best Animated Feature, losing to Pixar's Toy Story 3 & DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon, respectively.