Creating movie magic

"The Illusionist" proved to be an exceptional costume drama/period piece with twists and turns that aren't easy to predict. Here's our group's take on this picture:

WHAT IS INTERESTING, NOTEWORTHY AND DIFFERENT THAN WHAT YOU EXPECTED ABOUT THIS FILM?

·       Uhl serves as the audience surrogate; as he learns, we learn, and what he experiences, we experience.

·       The filmmakers don’t attempt to explain many of the tricks/illusions, suggesting that Eisenheim is, perhaps, using real magic.

·       Roger Ebert summarized the intelligence behind this film’s storytelling methods: “The Illusionist places the very film you’re watching at the center of the illusion. There’s an irony inherent in making a movie about magic, since the photographic medium is discontinuous and subject to post-production manipulations beyond those that can be created before a live audience.”

·       Actor Edward Norton has an enigmatic, mysterious quality to his acting style and appearance that makes him the ideal casting choice.

WHAT VISUAL EFFECTS AND LIGHTING TECHNIQUES ARE USED IN “THE ILLUSIONIST” TO CONVEY A VINTAGE LOOK AND FEEL?

·       The film image is given a consistent sepia tone in which greens and golds are particularly accentuated.

·       Iris fades are used, such as the kind popular in silent film days; and a concluding montage is employed that harkens back to the works of genius director Sergei Eisenstein, particularly his “Battleship Potemkin”

·       The frame has a flickering quality to it, almost as if the film itself was being passed through an antique projector.

·       The filmmakers use the technique of “vignetting”, a photographic method employed to constrict focus by dimming/darkening elements on the edges of the frame.

WHAT THEMES ARE AT WORK IN “THE ILLUSIONIST”?

·       The interplay between art and politics, art and religion, and religion and politics; writer Thomas A. Horne said the film “draws our attention to the role that art plays in maintaining political power and explores the way that art, in particular film art, can also undermine political power. It is, then, an extraordinarily self-conscious film that defends the filmmaker who wants to play a role in political life.”

·       The deceptive nature of perception and reality, and the fine line between reality and illusion. Director Neil Burger said in an interview that the film is “less about how he does the tricks than the idea that nothing is what it seems.”

·       The magical power and mystery behind new technology (consider how the audience is unfamiliar with the new art of motion pictures), and how things can appear mysterious and unknown to those who lack the science and sophistication to understand what’s causing the illusion or magic.

OTHER FILMS SIMILAR TO THE ILLUSIONIST

·       “The Prestige” and “Next,” two other films, also from 2006 and also about magicians/illusionists; the Prestige is particularly similar in that both movies concern magicians competing with a rival and who wear fake beards and a bowler hat.

·       Orson Welles’ “F For Fake”, a movie also concerned with art and trickery

·       Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo”

·       Tim Burton’s “Big Fish”

OTHER FILMS BY DIRECTOR NEIL BURGER

·       2002 Interview with the Assassin

·       2008 The Lucky Ones

·       2011 Limitless

·       2014 Divergent