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Sunday, March 20, 2011

BD impressions: L'illusionniste

2:18 PM / BD Impressions / 2 Comments

The film: It's hard to put my finger on precisely why Sylvain Chomet's follow-up to his excellent LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE doesn't have the same verve as its predecessor. It shares both the same visual style and languid pacing, but somehow it lacks that film's vibrance and energy. Given that it's a film about an ageing magician whose career is coming to an end, that's perhaps appropriate, but there's something rather laboured about it all, and the humour that infused BELLEVILLE is largely lacking... odd, given that the film was adapted from an unused script by Jacques Tati, arguably Chomet's biggest influence.

It all seems a bit distant, and the characters aren't especially likeable... particularly Alice, the teenage girl who hooks up with the cash-strapped illusionist and spends the bulk of the film demanding that he buy her expensive clothes, only to ditch him for a younger model when the money dries up completely. I get the impression I was meant to see her as charming and innocent; instead, I just found myself thinking "What an ungrateful little hussy!"

The film ends on a decidedly sombre note, but by then it has outstayed its welcome, meaning that whatever emotional resonance it might have had is diluted. I can't help feeling that perhaps this would have worked better as a short - it's lovely to look at, but there isn't enough material in it to sustain your undivided attention for 80 minutes. Recently, I was a little surprised to see this film overlooked in the best animated feature category the BAFTAs; having seen it, however, I can understand the decision. As much of a fan of traditional animation as I am, TOY STORY 3 and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (I haven't seen DESPICABLE ME yet) are far superior examples of the medium. 6/10

Image quality: Some very nice work by Pathé, who don't appear to have interfered with the image in any way. The sharpness is a little inconsistent, but this is clearly something inherent in the artwork itself: within any given shot, different elements (characters, backgrounds, props) vary in terms of overall clarity. The relatively low bit rate VC-1 encode does exhibit some compression artefacts, particularly around the thin pencil outlines, but it's nothing scandalous. 9/10

L'illusionniste
studio: Pathé; country: France; region code: B;
codec: VC-1; aspect ratio: 1.85:1

2 Comments

 
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