Movies I Like: L'Illusionniste

For some reason I want to say a few things about a handful of movies that I like. I don't know...

Ok (no order):

1. L'Illusionniste (The Illusionist - 2010). This is a hand drawn (romanticized-realist?) animation about a traveling magician and a protege he picks up along the way - a pretty young girl. There are no words; well, actually, there are Englishy mumbles, but that's as far as it goes. I had this movie saved to my parents DVR and would watch it before going to bed when I lived there. A kind of salve. I'm wondering if this has to do with the quality of whimsy present. A graying, middle aged whimsy. One doesn't leave this movie feeling bad.

There are parts of L'Illusionniste that I always want to watch (this is a preoccupation of mine, which will make other appearances in "Movies I like" to come) - like the magician taking boat rides out to Scotland, with all this wonderful green overcastness. God... And the music hits the spot - soulful soft classical piano, often in breathtaking waltz timing, occasionally accompanied by xylophones, jazz drums, and another thing or two. Clean and well-wishing, in an elderly way (as though you are spending the day with a sophisticated grandparent, and, incidentally, you two go to a doughnut shop and sip strangely good coffee and eat two frosting donuts, one with coconut and the other with chocolate chips). Reminds me of parts of Michael Giacchino's Up's score, but less heavyhanded with the melancholy/nostalgia. Here is an example.

As far as what the movie is about, to be honest I'm not really sure. I'll have to watch it again with that project in mind. I wasn't watching it for plot, though, and so it's hard to say what the meaning of the thing is. I've been taking it in episodically - to borrow Galen Strawson's term (see this paper for a run down on what episodism means, if you are interested). Nevertheless, I've seen the movie enough to know that the plot is like this: An understated, underdog-like magician performs in some big city, then travels to Scotland to perform, then travels back to the continent to perform, where he strikes the fancy of a girl (I'm thinking 15-18 years old) who follows him as a kind of stowaway. They eventually come to share an apartment, and the girl seems to want to learn magic - she thinks it's real, and the magician is having difficulties telling her to the contrary. Anyway, the magician is having a hard time getting any more gigs - as are all the other entertainment persons that surround them (clowns, gymnasts, etc.) - and he takes up other means of employment. The girl is presented with gifts (a coat, shoes, a dress) throughout the movie by the magician, and comes to affect some poise. This gains her the interest of a young man in town. When the magician sees them together, he decides to leave her some money and a note ("Magicians do no exist."), before taking a train out of town. We see the magician look at a handheld photograph longingly as he rides away (in fact, he eyeballs the photo a few time during the movie).

Maybe it has something to do with the destructive ramifications of consumerism. Maybe not. I tend to think everything I encounter now has this theme. I should probably look into that. The movie also seems to be about loss or something like that. I wouldn't have emphasized this connection, though, without reading the wikipedia page.

I will say, though, that fortunately, L'Illusionniste is not about a romance between the young woman (maybe girl?) and the middle aged magician. Every time I show L'Illusionniste to a friend, they always think it will go in that direction. But it doesn't. There is a purity about the movie. Maybe that's not quite right.

In any case the full movie is here.

I wonder what you think.