# The Illusionist (2010 film)
**The Illusionist** (French: *L'Illusionniste*) is a 2010 hand-drawn animated drama directed by Sylvain Chomet, adapted from an unproduced screenplay written by the French comedian and filmmaker [Jacques Tati](https://www.edgepedia.org/jacques-tati) in the late 1950s. A French-British co-production, it follows an aging stage magician, Tatischeff, who tours shrinking venues in the late 1950s as rock and roll displaces variety entertainment, and the young Scottish girl, Alice, who believes his tricks are real magic.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and source | Directed by Sylvain Chomet from an original, unproduced script by Jacques Tati; Chomet also wrote the adaptation, designed the characters, and composed music[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf) |
| Production | Django Films (UK) with Ciné B and France 3 Cinéma (France); producers Bob Last and Sally Chomet[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf) |
| Runtime and rating | 80 minutes; Rated PG[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf) |
| Release | France and Belgium 16 June 2010; UK 20 August 2010; United States 25 December 2010 (New York and Los Angeles)[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/133876/) • [1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf) |
| Principal voices | Jean-Claude Donda as Tatischeff; Eilidh Rankin as Alice[3](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0775489/credits/) |
| Box office | Budget $17,000,000; worldwide gross $6,007,194, of which $2,231,474 was domestic[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0775489/) |
| Honors | Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee for Best Animated Feature; winner of the 2010 European Film Award and New York Film Critics Circle award for Best Animated Film; César 2011 for Best Animated Film[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf) • [2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/133876/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and style
The film is set in the late 1950s, when rock stars draw the crowds and traditional variety acts, including acrobats, jugglers, and ventriloquists, are considered dated.[9](https://www.pathefilms.com/fr/films/lillusionniste/) The aging French illusionist Tatischeff takes increasingly obscure engagements in fringe theaters, garden parties, bars, and cafés. Performing in a village pub off the west coast of Scotland, where villagers are celebrating the arrival of electricity, he meets Alice, a young girl who believes his tricks are real magic. Though they do not speak the same language, they bond; Alice stows away on his ship and follows him to Edinburgh, where they settle into a father-daughter relationship in a boarding house for vaudevillians.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf)
Unable to tell her that magic does not exist, the illusionist works night jobs to buy the increasingly lavish gifts he pretends to conjure. As he grows older, Alice grows up, falls in love with a young man, and moves on with her life, leaving him free to stop pretending.[10](https://www.europeanfilmawards.eu/efa-movie/the-illusionist/)
The film is nearly wordless, carrying its story through visual detail and sound design rather than dialogue.[11](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-illusionist/5010672.article) The animation is hand-drawn, and the production had to search for artists with the requisite drawing skills, since computers had made many such animators redundant.[12](https://edinburghguide.com/news/5511-edinburgh-is-the-star-in-eiff-opener-the-illusionist) The illusionist's design is modeled on Tati himself; Chomet said his team studied the way Tati moved in his films to build the character.[13](https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/145779) Edinburgh, where the story concludes, is rendered in detail, and Chomet said he was drawn to the city's light, its changing hues, and its up-and-down landscape.[12](https://edinburghguide.com/news/5511-edinburgh-is-the-star-in-eiff-opener-the-illusionist)
## The Tati script
The screenplay was written by Jacques Tati, the French comic filmmaker whose full surname was Tatischeff, and never produced in his lifetime. Chomet said in a 2010 interview that Tati wrote the script in the 1950s and abandoned it because its magician protagonist was a part he could not credibly play himself; Tati died in 1982, and his daughter kept the manuscript.[5](https://theplaylist.net/exclusive-illusionist-director-sylvain-chomet-talks-jacques-tati-why-his-next-film-will-be-3d-20101229/) Chomet encountered the script in 2003 while at the Cannes Film Festival presenting his first feature, *[The Triplets of Belleville](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-triplets-of-belleville)*; Tati's daughter, having seen Chomet's storyboards while granting permission for an extract of *[Jour de fête](https://www.edgepedia.org/jour-de-fete)*, suggested the project be made in animation precisely so that no one else would play her father's role.[5](https://theplaylist.net/exclusive-illusionist-director-sylvain-chomet-talks-jacques-tati-why-his-next-film-will-be-3d-20101229/)
Dating and purpose of the script vary among accounts. The Guardian dates it to 1956 and describes it as a manuscript guarded for more than 50 years by Tati's family, particularly his daughter Sophie.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/19/the-illusionist-review) The Sony Pictures Classics press kit calls it "a love letter from a father to his daughter."[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf) A festival publicity text identifies the intended recipient differently, describing it as a letter from Tati to his estranged illegitimate daughter, Helga Marie-Jeanne Schiel.[7](https://bsf.si/media/publicity/text/4f/4f4f5d18c42b64f9bc91734531d6b6e788c10c90.pdf) The film journal *Senses of Cinema* places the writing around 1957, after an accident cost Tati full use of his right wrist, and notes there is no evidence Tati intended it for anything other than a full-color film with live actors.[8](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2010/feature-articles/the-illusionist/)
## Release and reception
The film opened as the opening-night selection of the 2010 Edinburgh International Film Festival and was an official selection at the 2010 Toronto and Telluride film festivals.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf) [Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.edgepedia.org/sony-pictures-classics) released it in the United States on December 25, 2010 in New York and Los Angeles.[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf)
Against a $17,000,000 budget, the film grossed $6,007,194 worldwide, with $2,231,474 of that in the domestic (United States and Canada) market.[4](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0775489/) Critical response was substantially stronger than its commercial performance: Rotten Tomatoes recorded a 90% Tomatometer from 134 reviews, Metacritic a score of 82 from 31 critics, and IMDb a 7.4/10 rating from about 38,000 users.[14](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_illusionist-2009) • [15](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-illusionist-1969/critic-reviews/) • [16](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775489/ratings/) Reviewers singled out the hand-painted imagery and the near-silent storytelling. Roger Ebert, the film critic for the *Chicago Sun-Times*, wrote that animation suited the film's delicate fancy in a way live action would not.[17](https://mubi.com/en/films/the-illusionist-2010/critics-reviews) Peter Bradshaw, film critic for *The Guardian*, called the result "utterly distinctive and beguiling" and predicted it would be admired as much as [Hayao Miyazaki](https://www.edgepedia.org/hayao-miyazaki)'s *Spirited Away* had been a decade earlier.[6](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/19/the-illusionist-review)
## Awards
The film won Best Animated Feature Film at the 2010 [European Film Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/european-film-awards) and Best Animated Film from the New York Film Critics Circle, and received nominations for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, plus five Annie Award nominations (Best Picture, Directing, Writing, Music, and Character Design).[1](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf) It also won the César for Best Animated Film at the 2011 ceremony.[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/133876/) The National Board of Review gave its Spotlight Award jointly to Sylvain Chomet and Jacques Tati.[18](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/)
## References
1. [THE ILLUSIONIST press kit, Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/presskit.pdf)
2. [The Illusionist (L'Illusionniste), Cineuropa film page](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/133876/)
3. [The Illusionist (2010) credits, Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0775489/credits/)
4. [The Illusionist (2010), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt0775489/)
5. [Exclusive: 'Illusionist' Director Sylvain Chomet Talks Jacques Tati, The Playlist (December 29, 2010)](https://theplaylist.net/exclusive-illusionist-director-sylvain-chomet-talks-jacques-tati-why-his-next-film-will-be-3d-20101229/)
6. [The Illusionist – review, The Guardian (August 19, 2010)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/aug/19/the-illusionist-review)
7. [ILUZIONIST / L'ILLUSIONNISTE / THE ILLUSIONIST publicity text, BSF](https://bsf.si/media/publicity/text/4f/4f4f5d18c42b64f9bc91734531d6b6e788c10c90.pdf)
8. [The Illusionist, Senses of Cinema (2010)](https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2010/feature-articles/the-illusionist/)
9. [L'illusionniste, Pathé Films](https://www.pathefilms.com/fr/films/lillusionniste/)
10. [THE ILLUSIONIST, European Film Academy](https://www.europeanfilmawards.eu/efa-movie/the-illusionist/)
11. [The Illusionist review, Screen Daily (February 16, 2010)](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-illusionist/5010672.article)
12. [Edinburgh Is The Star In EIFF Opener The Illusionist, EdinburghGuide.com (June 16, 2010)](https://edinburghguide.com/news/5511-edinburgh-is-the-star-in-eiff-opener-the-illusionist)
13. [Sylvain Chomet • Director interview, Cineuropa (May 26, 2010)](https://cineuropa.org/en/interview/145779)
14. [The Illusionist, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_illusionist-2009)
15. [The Illusionist critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-illusionist-1969/critic-reviews/)
16. [The Illusionist (2010) ratings, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775489/ratings/)
17. [The Illusionist (2010) critic reviews, MUBI](https://mubi.com/en/films/the-illusionist-2010/critics-reviews)
18. [The Illusionist, Sony Pictures Classics](https://www.sonyclassics.com/theillusionist/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Animated films by technique and form*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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