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Conjuring (1896 film)

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Wikipedia article




'Conjuring' is a 1896 French short silent film directed by Georges Mlis.

Production and release



The film reproduces a magic act Mlis performed at his Paris theater-of-illusions, the Thtre Robert-Houdin.

'Conjuring' is notable as Mlis's second film, and as his first to move beyond the actuality film genre pioneered by the Lumire brothers and experiment with using the camera to capture a theatrical magic act. (Later in 1896, with his discovery of the substitution splice technique, Mlis was able to begin augmenting his theatrical illusions with new special effects unique to film.) 'Conjuring' can thus be seen as Mlis's first foray into the world of fiction film.

The film was released by Mlis's Star Film Company and numbered 2 in its catalogues.

Rediscovery



In 2014, the Cinmathque franaise received a donation from the collector Franois Bintruy: a short fragment of chromolithographed animated film, rotoscoped from an unidentified 1896 Mlis film and showing Mlis himself performing a conjuring trick. Such fragments of animation had been manufactured from 1897 onward in Germany and France, for home use in toy projectors.

In 2015, the Cinmathque uncovered another fragmentary home-projector version of the same film, this time reproducing the original black-and-white live-action frames. In July 2015, the film scholar Jacques Malthte identified the film as Georges Mlis's 'Conjuring'.

References




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