Conjuring (1896 film)
| Conjuring | |
|---|---|
 A still from the film | |
| Directed by | Georges Méliès |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | original running time unknown, but the film was 20 metres long. Only 6 seconds[1] remain. |
| Country | France |
| Language | Silent |
Conjuring (French: Séance de prestidigitation) is a 1896 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès, who is also the actor doing the "conjuring".
Production and release
[edit]The film reproduces a magic act Méliès performed at his Paris theater-of-illusions, the Théâtre Robert-Houdin.[2]
Conjuring is Méliès's second film, and his first to move beyond the actuality film genre pioneered by the Lumière brothers and experiment with using the camera to capture a theatrical magic act. (Later in 1896, with his discovery of the substitution splice technique, Méliès was able to begin augmenting his theatrical illusions with new special effects unique to film.)[3] Conjuring can thus be seen as Méliès's first foray into the world of fiction film.[2]
The film was released by Méliès's Star Film Company and numbered 2 in its catalogues.[1]
Rediscovery
[edit]
In 2014,[4] the Cinémathèque française received a donation from the collector François Binétruy: a short fragment of chromolithographed animated film, rotoscoped from an unidentified 1896 Méliès film and showing Méliès himself performing a conjuring trick. Such fragments of animation had been manufactured from 1897 onward in Germany and France, for home use in toy projectors.[5]
In 2015, the Cinémathèque uncovered another fragmentary home-projector version of the same film, this time reproducing the original black-and-white live-action frames.[4] In July 2015, the film scholar Jacques Malthête identified the film as Georges Méliès's Conjuring.[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 335, ISBN 9782732437323
- ^ a b Kessler, Frank; Lenk, Sabine (1997), "L'addresse-Méliès", in Malthête, Jacques; Marie, Michel (eds.), Georges Méliès, l'illusionniste fin de siècle?: actes du colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 13–22 août 1996, Paris: Presses de la Sorbonne nouvelle, p. 186
- ^ Rosen, Miriam (1987), "Méliès, Georges", in Wakeman, John (ed.), World Film Directors: Volume I, 1890–1945, New York: The H. W. Wilson Company, p. 750, ISBN 0824207572
- ^ a b c Mannoni, Laurent, "[Film lithographique] da Une séance de prestidigitation di Georges Méliès", Il Cinema Ritrovato, Cineteca di Bologna, retrieved 1 October 2016
- ^ Mannoni, Laurent, Les premiers dessins animés sur pellicule de l'histoire du cinéma, Cinémathèque française, archived from the original on 6 April 2015, retrieved 1 October 2016
