Back in March the Russian trailer (right) for Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist, his follow-up to his 2003 Oscar-nominated film The Triplets of Belleville, debuted and it got many of us quite excited. Now, today I have received 29 new images from Pathe Pictures as the film gets ready to debut in French cinemas on June 16.
The Illusionist is based on an unproduced script by French comedy legend Jacques Tati and details the story of a dying breed of stage entertainer by the name of Monsieur Tatischeff (Tati’s real surname) whose thunder is being stolen by emerging rock stars. Forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theaters, garden parties and bars, he meets a young fan who changes his life forever.
As I detailed earlier, the film debuted at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival to impressive reviews causing me to hope it will be featured at this year’s Cannes Film Festival before being released internationally. It is yet to be picked up for domestic distribution, but I have still added it to the list of preliminary Oscar Contenders in the animated category.
To check out the complete gallery of 34 stills you can click here or on the image above and/or below. I don’t know about you, but seeing the glimpse of Tati in Mon Oncle in the lede pic is fantastic in my eyes.
