The Magic Lantern
About The Magic Lantern
Punch and Pierrot, in a child's bedroom, build an oversized toy magic lantern and project moving pictures on the wall. They open the lantern and dancing girls climb out, then a whole troupe. A fight starts over one of the dancers, the others flee, and the police arrive. The clowns hide in the lantern; when the officers open it, the men are gone and a monster stands there instead.
Cast & crew
More about The Magic Lantern
Star Film numbers 520–524. The United States title is The Magic Lantern, and the British title is The Magic Lantern, or the Bioscope in the Toy Shop. Zizi Papillon is the featured dancer.
Themes
Background
From the mid-nineteenth century, decorated magic lanterns were sold as nursery toys, and that is the machine the clowns build.
Making
The bedroom is a stage set with giant toys. The lantern is large enough for a dance troupe to stand inside.
Preservation
A print survives.
Notes
- Méliès used magic-lantern slides in his stage act at the Robert-Houdin and sometimes drew the slides himself.
- The lantern here is a child's toy, not the professional projector of his theatre. The trick is the old one of producing people from a box.
- A Centre national de la cinématographie guide notes that the toys are stock characters of pantomime.
- One measured print runs 4 minutes 52 seconds.
Scenes
- The clowns project a short picture show, including a kissing couple, on the bedroom wall.
- The lantern's sides drop and the dancing girls step out.
- The police open the lantern and find a monster where Punch and Pierrot had hidden.
Influenced by
- Stage tricks in which a person is produced from a box
- Nursery magic lanterns
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (La Lanterne magique (1903).webm)
