Illusions funambulesques, sold in the United States as Extraordinary Illusions and in Britain as The 20th Century Illustrationist, is a 1903 French silent trick film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 512–513 in its catalogues.[1]

Extraordinary Illusions
Directed byGeorges Méliès
StarringGeorges Méliès
Production
company
Release date
  • 1903 (1903)
CountryFrance
LanguageSilent

Méliès plays the magician in the film, which uses substitution splices and dissolves to create its tricks. Méliès returned to the motif of dressing up and transforming a mannequin in a 1905 film, The Enchanted Sedan Chair.[2]

Illusions funambulesques should not be confused with an earlier Méliès film, Dislocation Extraordinary (1901). This earlier film has also been known in English as Extraordinary Illusions since at least 1979, when John Frazer described it under that title.[3] A 2008 home video Méliès collection used the title Extraordinary Illusions for both the 1901 and the 1903 films.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 346, ISBN 9782732437323
  2. ^ Essai de reconstitution du catalogue français de la Star-Film; suivi d'une analyse catalographique des films de Georges Méliès recensés en France, Bois d'Arcy: Service des archives du film du Centre national de la cinématographie, 1981, pp. 158–59, ISBN 2903053073
  3. ^ Essai de reconstitution, p. 96.
  4. ^ Méliès, Georges (2008), Georges Méliès: First Wizard of Cinema (DVD; short film collection), Los Angeles: Flicker Alley, ISBN 1893967352
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