Extraordinary Illusions
About Extraordinary Illusions
Georges Méliès appears on a table, changes clothes in a cut, and builds a female mannequin from an empty box that becomes a woman. She turns into a cook, he kicks the cook, the figure becomes the woman again, and a cloth turns her into a pile of feathers. When he takes her hand for a bow, she is the cook once more. He tears the figure into pieces and dances on the table until he fades out.
Cast & crew
More about Extraordinary Illusions
Méliès directed and plays the magician. Star Film sold it in 1903 as numbers 512–513, as Extraordinary Illusions in the United States and as The 20th Century Illustrationist in Britain.
Themes
Technique
Substitution splices and dissolves turn the mannequin into a woman, a cook, and a heap of feathers.
Notes
- He used the mannequin-into-person gag again in The Enchanted Sedan Chair (1905).
- John Frazer's 1979 book, and a 2008 home-video set, also used the English title Extraordinary Illusions for Méliès's 1901 film Dislocation Extraordinary.
Scenes
- He covers her with a cloth and she becomes a pile of feathers.
- He rips the cook into mannequin parts and dances until the fade.
Influenced
- The Enchanted Sedan Chair (1905)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Illusions funambulesques (1903).webm)
