The Magic Dice
About The Magic Dice
Méliès, as the magician, plays a film version of Buatier de Kolta's stage illusion Le Dé Grossissant. A die grows in front of the audience. A woman then comes out of it. Stage machinery and substitution splices do the change.
Cast & crew
More about The Magic Dice
French title Le Phénix ou le Coffret de cristal, also called The Crystal Casket. Star Film numbers 686–689.
Themes
Background
A 1905 Star Film record of a famous stage illusion, not a story film.
Technique
The growing die uses stage machinery together with substitution splices.
Preservation
A fragment survives and was included in Flicker Alley's 2008 Méliès DVD collection.
Notes
- Buatier de Kolta's act made a die grow and then produced his wife from it. Méliès films that idea.
- Only a fragment is known to survive.
- The fragment is on the Flicker Alley set Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (2008).
Scenes
- The die swells until a woman steps out of it.
Influenced by
- Buatier de Kolta's illusion Le Dé Grossissant
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Le Phénix ou le Coffret de cristal (1905) excerpt.webm)
- Flicker Alley DVD: Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (2008)
