International Movie Trailer: The Illusionist, By Sylvain Chomet

We've shown you quite a good bit of material from Sylvain Chomet's The Illusionist, including a Russian trailer. But this UK trailer for the film is the best look yet; it has a lot of new footage, and the quality is much higher than anything we've seen so far. We knew from stills that the film would be quite beautiful, but from the footage in this trailer, it looks stunning.

Part of the footage here is the same stuff that was in the Russian trailer — the early onstage sequence and a few of the montage shots that follow. But there's new material here, too, and a much better encoding that shows off how fine the linework and animation really is. I don't know how the story will hold up (it's based on a film idea originally cooked up by French master Jacques Tati, upon whom the main character is based) but the footage is just about impeccable.

Here's the extended synopsis from Pathe UK:

The Illusionist is one of a dying breed of stage entertainers. With emerging rock stars stealing his thunder, he is forced to accept increasingly obscure assignments in fringe theatres, at garden parties and in bars and cafés. However, whilst performing in a village pub off the west coast of Scotland, he encounters Alice, an innocent young girl, who will change his life forever.

Watching his performance to the excited villagers who are celebrating the arrival of electricity to their remote island, Alice becomes awestruck by our hero and believes his tricks are real magic. Following him to Edinburgh, she keeps his home while he goes to work in a small local theatre. Enchanted by her enthusiasm for his act, he rewards her with increasingly lavish gifts he has 'conjured' into existence. Desperate not to disappoint her, he cannot bring himself to reveal that magic does not exist and that buying these gifts is driving him to ruin.

But as Alice comes of age, she finds love and moves on. The Illusionist no longer has to pretend and, untangled from his own web of deceit, resumes his life as a travelling entertainer, a much wiser man.