The Magician (1900)

Simply A Masterpiece

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

In the early years of cinema, film studios routinely stole material from each other. It got so bad that some studios, like American Biograph, begin putting a prominent A-B symbol on the sets so other studios wouldn't 'borrow' portions of their film. And, in many cases, you have multiple versions of films that are practically impossible to tell apart! While "The Magician" isn't quite that blatant a rip-off, it is still a rip-off. This is because the style and techniques used in the film were developed in 1896 by Georges Méliès and the Edison Studio folks are trying to make their own version of this sort of magical show.As far as the style and quality go, this is actually a pretty good film and I am pretty sure folks back in the day enjoyed it and were mystified when things appeared and disappeared. This was achieved simply by stopping and starting the camera--but audiences of the day didn't realize this. A crowd-pleaser but a rip-off.

Magician, The (1900) ** (out of 4) Fair Edison film lasts just under a minute. A magician walks onto a stage and does a couple tricks. Yep, that's pretty much the entire story to this film. I guess it should be noted that he does perform tricks involving a handkerchief and another involving tissue paper. George Melies was a major import in America back in 1900 and every studio here was trying to copy his success and I can only guess that this film was meant to rip him off. Not only do we get the same type of magic tricks but even the magician himself looks like Melies. The history of this film would probably be mildly interesting to silent film buffs and I'm sure the studio had a purpose. A lot of these movies would be sold to the public as being made by a name they recognize so you have to wonder if Edison pushed this off as a real Melies film. The quality from the magician isn't nearly as good and the "tricks" aren't nearly as effective. A mild curio at best but stick with Melies.

If you compare this film with others made a hundred years later, it of course appears weaker. No color? (introduced 1938) No sound? (introduced 1929)This museum piece is from 1900. Twelve years after the oldest extant film (Roundhay Garden Scene), four years after movies really started rolling in 1896 (Melies, Lumiere etc.) Of course it is dated. But try to imagine what effects it must have had on audiences back then...The "magic" seems to have been done with stop-motion. But I think, somehow it's still magic today.And this comment will have ten lines, however they are counted..

Okay, I just saw this film and it is all about a magician performing tricks. But, what tricks did he actually perform? When I just saw this film, the quality of the film was so choppy, of course and obviously and it was so complicated to know what he was actually doing.That is why i didn't like this short very much because of the choppy sequences, I mean, it is not their fault that the film was so choppy. It is just because back in the old days, they did not have good technology for the films and SORRY for blaming you people who lived in the year 1900.I give this film: 5/10