An evening spent watching The Illusionist is one of unadulterated enjoyment, and the Christ’s College auditorium provides a fitting environment to appreciate this unremittingly beautiful film. It tells the story of the Illusionist – or club ‘magician’ – Tatischeff  trudging between underwhelming audiences at the start of the 1960s, a time that sees his old-fashioned act become irrelevant to a fresh young world. The hand-drawn animation is visually striking from the off , and Sylvain Chomet’s direction presents a detailed world which quickly immerses the audience. Hired by a drunk Scot to perform on a remote island, the Illusionist cuts an isolated figure until a young girl (Alice) sees his act and becomes entranced with what she believes is magic. She endures a frustration which is akin to that of Dr Johnson upon realising his accidental omission of ‘aardvark’ from his hand-written dictionary, and when the Illusionist offers her a small kindness she follows him to his next venue, Edinburgh. They stay there and the rest of the film explores this father-daughter relationship.

It’s a simple plot and it unravels slowly, allowing time to absorb the contemplative elements of the film. Very little is said; the action is instead pursued through physicality and mood. This allows the comic set-pieces and exquisite score to come to the fore. Gentle mockery of consumer culture lies in the background of each shot, from the greasy Scottish restaurant ‘McDoonaulds’ to the Swami promoting perfume in a department store. There were moments of awkwardness, when the camera panned back to show a landscape that was stylistically out of place, but these occurrences were counterbalanced by the amusement which they evoked, from the pink suit and poise of Tatischeff  as chaos unfolded around him, to the vision of a clown about to hang himself to circus music. The physicality of the characters was well realised, with Tatischeff’s oval body based upon the famous French mime Tati who wrote the manuscript for several of The Illusionist’s scenes before his death.

It would be difficult to lavish too much praise upon this film, as it skilfully interwove the humorous and the heartfelt. Even after it had drawn to an understated emotional climax, it left the audience in a state of muted awe. And rightly so.