The Vanishing Lady
The Vanishing Lady | |
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Directed by | Georges Méliès |
Starring |
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Production company | |
Release date |
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Running time | Approx. 75 seconds[1] |
Country | France |
Language | Silent |
The Vanishing Lady (French: Escamotage d'une dame chez Robert-Houdin, literally "Magical Disappearance of a Lady at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin") is an 1896 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès. It features Méliès and Jehanne d'Alcy performing a trick in the manner of a stage illusion, in which D'Alcy disappears into thin air. A skeleton appears in her place before she finally returns for a curtain call.
The film, shot outdoors in Méliès's garden on a platform decorated with theatrical scenery, is based on a famous stage illusion by
Synopsis
A magician walks onto a stage and brings out his assistant. He spreads a newspaper on the floor (thus demonstrating that no trap door is hidden there) and places a chair on top of it. He has his assistant sit in the chair, and spreads a shawl over her. When he removes the shawl, she has disappeared. He then waves his arms in the air and conjures up a skeleton. He places the shawl over the skeleton and removes it to reveal his assistant, alive and well.
Production
The Vanishing Lady is based on a magic act by the French magician
In the filmed version, Méliès appears as the magician, and his assistant is
The beginning of the film closely follows the Buatier de Kolta stage illusion, complete with the newspaper and shawl props.[2] On film, however, Méliès needed no trapdoor, using instead an editing technique called the substitution splice—the first known instance of his using this effect.[3] The substitution splice allowed Méliès and D'Alcy to cut directly from a shot of D'Alcy, seated in the chair under the shawl, to a shot where she was offscreen; between the two shots, Méliès held his position, creating the illusion of a magical disappearance.[1] Méliès also took advantage of the substitution splice to expand the trick for the film, adding the transformation to and from a skeleton; the Buatier de Kolta stage illusion ended with the assistant's appearance.[2]
Although he later claimed to have invented the technique independently, after his camera accidentally became jammed, Méliès probably developed the splice after seeing a rudimentary version in an 1895 Edison Manufacturing Company film The Execution of Mary Stuart. The Vanishing Lady is the first known use of the effect for magical as opposed to practical purposes, and the substitution splice became the most fundamental special effect in Méliès' oeuvre.[1]
Release
The Vanishing Lady was released by Méliès's
See also
References
- ^ ISBN 0816183686
- ^ a b c d Hamus-Vallée, Réjane (2014), "Le sauce et le poisson: Pour une esthétique de l'effet Mélièsien", in Malthête, Jacques; Gaudreault, André; Le Forestier, Laurent (eds.), Méliès, carrefour des attractions; suivi de Correspondances de Georges Méliès (1904-1937), Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, pp. 97–105 (here 100–103)
- ^ OCLC 10506429
- ^ Cinémathèque Française, retrieved 2021-01-09
- ISBN 9782732437323
External links
- The Vanishing Lady at IMDb
- The Vanishing Lady digitized at the Cinémathèque Française