Attila Marcel review

Chomet rides into live-action

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The imaginative whimsy of Belleville Rendez-Vous and The Illusionist is both present and correct in Sylvain Chomet’s live-action debut, a gentle charmer with dark elements in which music plays a pivotal role.

So does the mutely expressive Guillaume Gouix, on double duty as both the silent piano prodigy trying to unlock repressed memories and the wrestler father he suspects had a hand in his mother’s death. Tuneful flashbacks supply fantastical punctuation to a film that sees Chomet pay elaborate homage to everyone from Jacques Demy to Marcel Proust.

Neil Smith
Neil Smith
Freelance Writer

Neil Smith is a freelance film critic and writer who contributes regularly to Heat, SFX and Screen International. He's a long-time member of the London Film Critics’ Circle and was a contributing editor at Total Film for many years.

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