The Magician (1898)

Name: The Magician
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Released: 1898-01-01
Duration: 1 min
Rating: 6.1
Cast: Georges Méliès

The Magician (1898), directed by Georges Méliès, starring Georges Méliès.

01/01/1898 BR Drama and Fantasy 1m

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Synopsis

In this scene is shown a magician behind an ordinary table, upon which he suddenly and mysteriously causes to appear a large box, into which he leaps. The sides of the box fall to the ground, but instead of containing the magician a lively clown steps forth who further mystifies the audience by causing the box to disappear, and in its place is seen a fully laid table with a smoking dinner, to which the clown applies himself. The table, however, suddenly disappears much to the astonishment of the clown, who is confronted by the magician in the garb of Mephistopheles. This he suddenly changes to that of a sculptor, and in the background is seen a pedestal with the bust of a young lady, which comes to life as the sculptor applies the mallet and chisel.

Georges MélièsDirector

About the film

The Magician (French: Le Magicien; Star Film Catalogue no. 153.) is an 1898 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès, featuring a wizard, a Pierrot and a sculptor in a rapid series of substitution splices. The film is, "another exercise in the art of the jump-cut," according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "in the tradition of Georges Méliès' earlier A Nightmare (Le Cauchemar, 1896) and The Haunted Castle (Le Château hanté, 1897)."

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Synopsis

A wizard conjures a table and a box out of thin air, and then vanishes as he jumps toward the box. Pierrot emerges from the box and takes a seat, when suddenly a banquet appears on the table, but it vanishes along with the table and chair before he can eat. A man in an Elizabethan doublet taps him on the shoulder and he is transformed into a Renaissance sculptor. Lifting a half finished bust onto a pedestal he prepares to set to work on it with a hammer and chisel only for it to come to life and snatch his tools from him. He attempts to embrace the sculpture only for it to disappear and reappear in a variety of poses. Finally the Elizabethan man reappears to kick him in the rump.

Cast

Georges Méliès as Le Sculpteur

Current status

Given its age, this short film is available to freely download from the Internet.

References

External links

The Magician at IMDb

The Magician on YouTube

Text from The Magician (1898 film) on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magician_(1898_film)

Trivia

It premiered on January 1, 1898, a Saturday.
Its original title is "Le Magicien".
This film's quiz has 7 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.

Production

StudiosStar Film
CountriesFrance
LanguagesNo Language
StatusReleased

Cast

Georges Méliès Le Sculpteur

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Georges Méliès Director

Questions about this film

What is The Magician about?

The Magician: In this scene is shown a magician behind an ordinary table, upon which he suddenly and mysteriously causes to appear a large box, into which he leaps. The sides of the box fall to the ground, but instead of containing the magician a lively clown steps forth who further mystifies the audience by causing the box to disa…

Who directed The Magician?

The Magician was directed by Georges Méliès in 1898.

Who stars in The Magician?

The cast of The Magician includes Georges Méliès.

How long is The Magician?

The Magician runs for 1 minutes, or 0h01.