MovieChat Forums > L'illusionniste (2011) Discussion > If I could just try to clear up this iss...

If I could just try to clear up this issue...

posted 14 years ago by CherryBomb23
4 replies | jump to latest

It seems to most that the protective behavior of The Illusionist seemed seedy or questionable. I'd just like to express my opinion; as I think this will clear up a lot for most viewers. This is a French movie. Meaning it's a european movie, thus meaning this movie had many european customs embedded into their characters. I have a family from Italy and Turkey, and I have to say this film had a very European feeling with European acting characters. The things that The Illusionist and Alice did were not romantic in the slightest. For a young lady and an older man with a father/daughter relationship it is very common to kiss each others cheeks, walk down the street holding each others arms, etc. It has nothing to do with romance or a sexual relationship.
I hope that helped a bit..

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] cableaddict 13 years ago

Why would anyone think this was seedy. (Yeah I know, and it's sad.)

The entire movie was a metaphor for the father-child relstionship.

[–] frankstallone1 13 years ago

Yeah, I have no idea how people got that idea. The guy never had a family and now that the world was passing him by and he could no longer do what he loved, he saw someone who needed him and was trying to validate his life by being there for her and trying to make her life better any way he could. It was in no way creepy, sexual, or even ambiguously so to me. It has nothing to do with being European, though, the same thing can and has happened in the U.S.

I also don't see how people say that all that the girl did was take away his desire and will to do magic. They made it quite clear that the world no longer saw a need for his brand of entertainment. Vaudeville acts were being replaced by prancing pop bands playing to the teeny bopper crowd. He still loved what he did, and would have continued, but there was no market for him anymore. He just didn't want to do it in a store window. The girl didn't make that happen, the world did.

Obviously, the train scene at the end showed he still had something left. He just left because he thought he would stand in the way of the girl's happiness with the young man, and tried to do so in a way that would help her forget about him.

[–] TannerDVader 13 years ago

I'd like to point out that he slept on the couch, and let her take the bed.

Surely that says something about his motives.

"The day you're born, you're already dead."