Realism, Illusion, and Special Effects in the Cinema

Abstract

Special effects have long been described as illusory or as the techniques for the creation of illusion. In this respect, special effects have been understood to be in the service of the generally illusory nature of cinematic representation itself, with realistic depiction reduced to the status of illusion. Against an illusion theory of cinematic realism and of realistic pictorial depiction generally, the argument here is that realism in the cinema is thoroughly a matter of style and that it need not become entangled with the apparently related but in fact tangential question of illusion and the related questions of perception, belief, and “reality.” Considering a particular film by George Méliès, The Vanishing Lady, which realistically represents a magic trick, an “illusion,” a more limited and specific account of realism is proposed.