Gardens conjure up screening of Edinburgh-set movie The Illusionist
Edinburgh's historic outdoor concert venue is to be turned into a huge open-air cinema this weekend for a special screening of a cinematic love letter to the city.
Sylvain Chomet, the French filmmaker who relocated to Scotland for five years while an 80-strong team made The Illusionist in Edinburgh, has recorded a special introduction for the screening at the Ross Bandstand.
The creator of Belleville Rendevzous recalls how the team working on the film would regularly emerge from their George Street studios to take photographs of the modern-day city because it had changed so little since the 1950s when the film is set.
The screening will bring the curtain down on Cinescapes, a touring festival that has seen pop-up film screenings staged in locations linked to the movies being shown.
Tickets for the event, which starts at 6pm, are available on a pay-what-you-want basis, with a suggested donation of £5 per person.
The 2010 film, which was nominated for an Academy Award, follows the adventures of an out-of-work illusionist from Paris to Scotland, where his tricks impress a teenage girl.
Key scenes were set around Edinburgh, including Princes Street, George Street, the Royal Mile, Arthur’s Seat, the Barony Bar on Broughton Street and the Cameo Cinema in Tollcross.
The film was based on an unproduced script written by the French actor, writer and film director Jacques Tati, and was originally intended to be made in Czechoslovakia.
However, it was relocated to Scotland after Chomet fell in love with the city during a visit for the film festival, which host a gala premiere of The Illusionist on its opening night in 2010.
In the introductory film, Chomet says: “The film is very true to the place, the city and the people.
“I was living in Scotland for five years, in the heart of East
Lothian, so maybe I know it a bit better than people doing caricatures of the place, such as everybody being ginger or that all the guys are massive
with beards. When we were making the film we just had to go out into the street and take photographs of the places we wanted, because mostly
the city had changed much since 1959, when the film takes place.”