“The illusionist” – (2010, UK/France, 80 minutes – rated PG)
Note: this review contains spoilers.
Adapted from an original script written by Jacques Tati in 1956, “the illusionist” retains all the charms from Sylvain Chomet’s previous animated film “the triplettes of Belleville”.
Watch the trailer here:
“The illusionist” is a very different kind of film though, partly because it is semi-autobiographical, but mainly perhaps because of the controversy as to which of Tati’s daughters the script was dedicated. Tati had a daughter out of wedlock during WWII with an Austrian dancer named Herta Schiel. Pressured by his sister, Tati abandoned mother and child, and went on to start a family with Micheline Winter, with whom he had a second daughter, Sophie, and a son named Pierre.
Each side lays claim to Tati’s original intent. Did he write out of sorrow and guilt for abandoning Helga Marie, or regret at having missed much of Sophie’s childhood while on the road?
School bus driver Kyung-Chul (Min-Sik Choi) has a nice little toy affixed to the rear view mirror of his van: plastic angel wings which light up in cool blue. It’s cute looking and probably helps put the young women and girls he picks up at ease.
Yellow school van and little blue wings.
Choi as serial killer Kyung
But Kyung is a serial killer who brings his victims back to his lair to carve them up after raping them. He then provides a cannibalistic associate of his with their meat to consume.
Watch the trailer here:
One snowy night in the countryside, Kyung drives up to a station wagon stopped by the side of the road with a flat tire.
While being interviewed by a news crew, Judy Pugh from Tuscaloosa Alabama, is reunited with her cat Cadie. Cadie simply walked up to her after a month long separation.
Listen to Cadie purring as Mrs. Pugh holds her close.
All furry (and not furry) creatures are miracles. Perhaps not quite of this sort:
In anticipation of the Apocalypse predicted tomorrow, undoubtedly a very sad day for many people, we asked the furry ones whether they were planning the final takeover this weekend. But…
Endcat is coming?
What we have here…
Is two cats and two humans trying to communicate verbally, and for anything other than entertainment, it’s a failure.
Kitsy: -“MmmMmRrrrww-eeew…. WAAAAAH?!? MmmmMrrrrr…
Tito: – RrrrRwwEEEEEE..! RrrrRrrooooo…..
Us: – Wha-? Errm, weeeee?
Kitsy: – RRWAH!!!” (Stops to lick the inside of his left thigh, leg fully extended, toes splayed).
"Say whaaaa-?"
The fact is, these buggers are ambiguous: you know that look, when they watch you with half closed eyes, seemingly satisfied? They have the exact same expression when they give you the stinkeye.
Body language..?
A helpful guide
Tito does the downward bonk, dipping his head straight down and applying his forehead to your hand in salutation. Kitsy does the sideways bonk, tilts his head to one side, rubbing his chin and side of his face against you. Sometimes, he will shove his head nose first into your hand, and I think that’s his preferred way of wiping his schnazz as well.
Mmmumph.... I don't believe this...
Most times, the conversation is one way, especially with Kitsy who will stare at us trilling, cooing, meowing until he gets pissy and takes off barking. Yes: he barks.
Most times, it goes something like this.
In 1348, the plague known as ‘black death’ is cutting wide and deep through the populations of Europe and has reached England with a vengeance. Some men have taken to question God, while others blame Him outright, forcing the Catholic Church to take drastic measures to assert itself.
Watch the trailer here:
Those communities not yet affected by the disease come under suspicion of witchcraft and emissaries are sent to investigate and return proof to the religious authorities.
Bloke is being divorced by his wife, so his mates, who all have ‘spousal’ issues of their own, decide to take him on a wild weekend in the village of Moodley, where women outnumber men by four to one.
They’re all hoping for some Hoo-Hoo-Hee-Haa, wa-hey-hey sexy times I guess.
As our heroes are about to find out, the women of the village have been turned into demonic, zombie-like mutants with cannibalistic tendencies by a military experiment gone very wrong.
Watch the trailer here:
Marooned in the village with the last survivor of the military team, our gang will try its best to survive in creative and funny ways. Such as putting a severed head in a radio controlled truck for the zombirds to chase after, or filling a squirt gun with flammable fuel for the RC truck and spraying a zombird with it (a one time use, but hey…).
I’m frustrated. We’re watching a movie called “a cat’s tale” also known as “cats: the movie”, a live action shot on video (gotta stay mobile to follow the cats in the story), and I think they did a pretty good job at telling a story with creatures that, well, are doing pretty much as they please.
I guess it’s all in the editing, and thank goodness for video, otherwise the cost of film would be astronomical.
Point is, they did a pretty good job of it. Personally, I’ve been having a hell of a time trying to take pictures of Tito and the demon Mazuzu. Tito… Tito, the inexplicably paranoid kitty. I saw him creep up on a dust bunny and suddenly beat the crap out of it as if it were an intruder… Same thing with drapes. I don’t even ask anymore.
Oh, you wanted a photo?
I’ve taken to turning the camera on in another room because he sometimes (but not always) jumps nervously when he hears the electronic sound the camera makes. Yeah, he’s not exactly consistent about that.
Then he has to be approached in such a way that he senses me coming into the room, but not in such a way that he might think I’m about to move stuff (a big no-no which will send him scurrying). He is difficult enough to photograph in natural light, dark and jumpy as he is, but he also has an uncanny sense of the precise moment when the shutter’s about to close: he then closes his eyes or turns his head.
For every good picture we ever managed to take of him, dozens more were deleted.
Aaaaaahhhhhhh! It’s got me!
Oh, but Mazuzu is something else.
First, we can’t use the flash because his eyes, his blue peepers, are sensitive to it and he shuts them or turns away. We’ve practiced and gotten him used to being photographed without it, again in natural light. Given that the apartment is relatively dark, these two are making us work at it… If I contort myself and manage to get positioned just right for a close up, he will turn and present his rear end. Or close his eyes, still. But 8 times out of 10, I get the rear. At times, he’ll smudge his nose against the lens.
Kitsune’s blue peepers
Well, you know, what works in fashion ends up working in cat photography as it turns out. Load them up on catnip, turn the music up a bit, have someone rough-house them, petting them heavily while saying stuff like “work it Baby! Yeah, that’s right! Oh you like that?” And your subjects will squirm and mug for you…
If you want them to hold the pause, point the laser a few inches from their stoned – I mean impaired – noses and make it quick.
This. Is a lot of work…
The cats have been feeling their oats lately, playing just a bit more vigorously than usual and sleeping just as hard…
ZZZZZZZ-Whaaa..?
We’ve been going out more and more ourselves, spending most of this past Saturday at Golden Gate Park, starting with grilled fish, shrimp and carne asada in the meadow across from Mallard Lake. We had marinated the shrimp in a mix of Clementine-tangerine juice mixed with lime juice, brown sugar, thinly sliced shallots and shredded ginger which all came out deliciously fresh tasting.
Filets of sole and carne asada, with blackened seasoning on the fish.
Grilled peppers and beer, dried bread crumbs for our hosts.
Raven
Three hours later, we took a stroll around Mallard Lake where we saw this beautiful Blue Heron:
Great blue heron
Looking for parking around the Arboretum, I decided to drive around Stow Lake where we saw these geese with their goslings:
Canadian Geese and goslings
Finally, the arboretum with so many flowers in bloom:
