| The Famous Box Trick | |
|---|---|
 A frame from the film | |
| Directed by | Georges Méliès |
| Starring | Georges Méliès |
Release date |
|
Running time | Approx. 70 seconds[1] |
| Country | France |
| Language | Silent |
The Famous Box Trick (French: Illusions fantasmagoriques) is an 1898 French silent trick film, directed by Georges Méliès, featuring a stage magician who transforms one boy into two with the aid of an axe.
A stage magician conjures up a dove and places it in a box with a set of clothes. A boy appears from the box, and the magician divides him into two boys with an axe. The two boys squabble, and the magician transforms one into a paper tissue, which he shreds and places the other back in the box. The magician then destroys the box with a hammer to show the boy has vanished. The boy reappears and is transformed into flags. The magician then disappears in a puff of smoke, only to re-enter through a door to take his bow.
At the time of filming The Famous Box Trick, Méliès had recently finished a series of complex "reconstructed newsreels" (staged recreations of current events) about the Spanish–American War. He then moved back towards trick films with this film and a handful of others, short magical sketches focusing on special effects made with variations of the substitution splice. The Famous Box Trick, with ten substitution splices in a single minute of action, may be the most complex of this group[2] and the most technically complicated of any film Méliès had made so far.[1]
Méliès plays the magician in the film, which also uses pyrotechnics in its effects.[3] The style is highly theatrical, with camera tricks only beginning around halfway through, and particularly reminiscent of Méliès's earlier The Vanishing Lady (1896).[4] The film's use of American and British flags as props reflects international interest in Méliès's films; by 1898, Méliès had found the United States and United Kingdom to be important markets for his work.[1]
The film was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 155 in its catalogues.[3] A print survives at the British Film Institute.[1]
