Jacques Tati (1907-1982), was born Jacques Tatischeff. He directed only six films. Four of them featured the writer-director as Mr. Hulot, a gawky, shambling man who smoked a pipe, wore a raincoat and carried an umbrella. The films were scant on dialogue, long on sight gags and sound effects, and genially lampooned the vagaries of French society. They were years ahead of their time. Though his father was a Russian emigre and his mother came from the Netherlands, Tati was born in France lived there for his entire life.
He was late to the movie industry, having been a mime, juggler, comedian and magician in the French equivalent of English music halls or American burlesque. His Hulot films, however, Mr. Hulot's Holiday (1953), My Uncle (1958), Play Time (1957) and Traffic (1971), have earned him a place in any Motion Picture pantheon of directors. Mr. Hulot's Holiday was an Academy award nominee for best original screenplay. My Uncle earned top honors at the Cannes Film Festival and won an Academy Award for best foreign-language film.
"The Illusionist," which opens today, comes from a 1956 Tati screenplay adapted, animated and directed by Sylvain Chomet, and an Oscar nominee for best animated feature. Chomet, who directed the wonderful "The Triplets of Belleville" a few years ago, again has brought forth a stylish, insightful, entertaining motion picture. It's also extremely sad in that it follows a man like Tati himself as his career and dreams crumble around him.
A girl named Alice, dressed niftily in red Mary Janes, befriends him while he is on tour in Scotland, and therein lies another tale. Tati fathered a daughter at least 30 years ago in an extra-marital affair but they almost never saw one another. Is Alice an effort by Tati to recognize another child, an attempt for him to try to expiate his sin? Or is it an effort to pay tribute to a younger daughter, Sophie, who worked with him for many years, and gave the screenplay to Chomet a year or so before she died?
"The Illusionist" is a fascinating tale with a lot of back story to whet the imagination and extend what is seen on the screen.
The Illusionist opens today at the Tivoli
—Joe