Magic and illusion in early cinema

Abstract

AbstractThis essay looks at the influence of nineteenth-century magic arts on early film-makers, looking particularly at Georges Melies and the Lumiere Brothers. I hope to show that the origins of cinematic illusion lie in an earlier art form which fused science and showmanship. The historical links between magic and cinema can help us to understand early film's ambiguous relations to both art and technology. Since magic theatre was designed to remove any fearful elements from the stagecraft, the illusions took on an anti-realistic quality which would enable spectators to appreciate the artistry and the science behind a trick without ever being completely deceived. Some of the earliest film-makers engaged with both the scientific and artistic capabilities of the new medium in order to meet the expectations of such technically-literate audiences.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 24 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.