Magic as Special Effects

Abstract

In 1888, the conjurer Georges Melies bought the Theâtre-Robert-Houdin from Emile Robert-Houdin’s widow (Jean-Eugene Robert-Houdin’s daughter-in-law) and began to perform there.1 Under his directorship, the theater continued to function as it had before, albeit with significantly less success. In December 1895, Melies was in the audience in the basement of the Grand Cafe for the first public showing of the Lumiere brothers’ cinematographe A few months later, he built his own camera projector and soon began making motion pictures himself. In October 1896, in Montreuil-sous-Bois, just outside Paris, he created the first cinematic studio in history. There, he brought the art and techniques of stage illusions to his early films, many of which consisted of simple reproductions of theater tricks. Melies soon moved beyond filming stage magic and began to develop tricks especially adapted to the new medium of film: arret de camera or substitution splicing, multiple exposure, and color painting on film, for example. Between 1896 and 1912, he produced hundreds of short films, many of which became classics of early cinema. From wonder on the stage, conjuring was becoming wonder on the screen.2