ABSTRACT

The magic act is a performance best seen live, the skill of prestidigitation more difficult to deny when the trick is offered in the physical space shared by the audience. For Georges Méliès, the cinema offered the opportunity to extend the stage act he had developed and to embellish upon the traditional illusions of the music hall. Méliès’ skill lay with his knowledge of legerdemain, sleight of hand (literally ‘light of hand’), but also the way of thinking it suggests, a trickster’s mind and one which was able to anticipate and apply what the technology of cinema could contribute to the communication of this craft to a wider audience. This work seeks to examine the relationship of Méliès’ artistic vision with his background in the music hall and his future in the cinema, exploring the ways in which Méliès used (indeed, in many cases created) the production and post-production processes available to produce on-screen magic – whether accidentally, by early exploitations of the medium (Escamotage d’une Dame Chez Robert-Houdin), progressively more technically complex realisations (L’Homme à la tête de Caoutchouc), or even the use of social and professional connections from his music hall background. Additionally, the mediatory effect of the technology of camera, editing, and mise-en-scene will also be considered. By offering technical and aesthetic analysis of Méliès’ work and examining the technology and expectation at hand during its creation, this article seeks a closer consideration of the relationship between the music hall and the cinema and the work of Méliès as bond between the two as entertainment entered a new age.

摘要

魔术表演是现场观看的最佳表演，当魔术在观众共享的物理空间中提供时，魔术表演的技巧更难以否认。对于乔治·梅里爱来说，电影院提供了一个机会，可以扩展他所发展的舞台表演，并美化音乐厅的传统幻想。梅里爱的技巧在于他对legerdemain、sleight of hand（字面意思是“轻巧”）的了解，以及它所暗示的思维方式，一个骗子的头脑，一个能够预测和应用电影技术可以做出贡献的人将这种工艺传播给更广泛的受众。这部作品旨在审视梅里爱的艺术视野与他在音乐厅的背景和他在电影中的未来之间的关系，探索梅里爱使用的方式（事实上，Escamotage d'une Dame Chez Robert-Houdin），技术上越来越复杂的实现（L'Homme à la tête de Caoutchouc），甚至利用他音乐厅背景的社会和专业联系。此外，摄影技术、剪辑技术和现场布景技术的中介效应也将被考虑在内。本文通过对梅里爱作品的技术和美学分析，审视其创作过程中手头的技术和期望，试图更深入地思考音乐厅与电影之间的关系，以及梅里爱的作品作为两者之间的纽带，作为娱乐的纽带。进入了一个新时代。