Writer/director Sylvain Chomet rose to international fame with his 2003 breakout animated feature film, The Triplets of Belleville. Even within the prolonged production timeframe of the animation industry, his inactivity since then is astounding, with only one other animated feature film between then and now, 2010’s The Illusionist. His latest animated work continues his fascination with the past, even as it falls into such a rut of realism that there’s no perceptible reason for it to be a cartoon.
Buy A Magnificent Life from MovieZyngThe film tracks the life and career of French auteur Marcel Pagnol, with heavy emphasis on “career.” We follow Pagnol’s rise to success as a playwright, checking in around opening night of each successive play as it finds its place in the market. From there, we track his transition to the emerging industry of feature films at the advent of sound and beyond as he finds his way as a movie director. What Chomet fails to portray is any sense of Pagnol’s life, with little attention paid to anything aside from Pagnol’s endless assembly line of works.
The film is initially framed as Pagnol’s autobiography, with the elderly artist receiving a commission from a magazine to write a serial of his life, which leads to the appearance of his childhood avatar to guide viewers through his rise to fame. The boy ages, but no lasting relationships materialize, leading to the impression that the artist was slavishly dedicated to his craft for his entire life. That’s fine if true, but seems suspiciously like a crime of omission, leaving viewers with little feel for Pagnol’s driving motivations, inspirations, or meaningful others.
The animation style partially retains Chomet’s prior charm, with warm, highly detailed settings and characters exuding the promise of early-mid 20th century France. Chomet knows how to make vintage eras shine, but his continuing drift toward realism is unfortunate. Where Triplets utilized overexaggerated character models and breathtaking flights of fancy to widespread acclaim, The Illusionist marked a turn toward conformity that reaches its apex here in a rigid and realistic biographical structure, leaving little space for artistic experimentation. He’s worked in live action before, and while my preference will always be given to his animated efforts, this film offers little compelling reason for its animated format.
The Blu-ray presents the film in 2.00:1 aspect ratio, with a standard English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, as well as an alternate English audio description 5.1 Dolby Digital option. Notice anything missing? The U.S. release of this French film commits the cardinal sin of omitting the original language track, leaving viewers with no choice but to watch French cinematic history play out in English, a disconcerting experience that should have been avoided at all costs, as U.S. distributors of anime learned long ago. It’s also a bare-bones disc, with zero bonus features. Image and sound quality are superb, fully capturing the technical mastery of Chomet’s artistry, but viewers with no knowledge of Pagnol will find no supplemental information here.
Buy A Magnificent Life from AmazonAs traditional animated features go, the film’s rich period details help to make it shine, even as Chomet’s devotion to realism shackles it. It’s worth seeing as an accomplished animated film, but be prepared to walk away with precious little insight into the personal details of Pagnol’s magnificent life.
