Cleolinda everywhere

So I'm going through my inbox a couple of days ago and there's an email from a Fox/M80 DVD rep who found the entry I wrote on The Illusionist and saw how much I loved the movie. I mean, I'm sure Fox is contacting a number of bloggers, but you can do worse than someone who started reading up on stage magic because of this and The Prestige. (And no, I still haven't tracked down the Steven Millhauser collection with "Eisenheim the Illusionist" yet, which vexes me deeply.) And they said that if I'd mention a few things, they'd send me a copy of the DVD, which 1) yay! and 2) I feel I should mention in the interest of fair play. But asking me to promote The Illusionist is like asking me to promote chocolate: my enthusiasm is genuine.

So first of all, I go to the DVD site they linked me to, and omg. They show you the plans for the orange tree! Jim Steinmeyer explained it in only the vaguest terms! It was a really beautifully done scene in the movie--I think that was my favorite track on the soundtrack--although my suspicion is that it was done with CGI in the movie. Which is why I wanted the DVD, because I so wanted to see the extras--apparently Ricky Jay was an advisor on both The Illusionist and The Prestige, as I understand it, so theoretically they could have recreated the orange tree illusion for real; I'd have to watch it again to see. I just assumed it was CGI because it was such a lovely, glowing effect, only finding out later that it was a famous Robert-Houdin illusion from the mid-1800s (and I'm not even sure he originated it). The other thing I loved was that Edward Norton wanted to do all the non-FX magic himself, and I'm completely fascinated by sleight of hand. Not how it works, exactly--yes, I'm sure you palmed it or hid it between your fingers or whatever--but the way it looks. There's a clip on the DVD site (go to Trailer and then Clip #2, "Trade Secret," which is also kind of sweet because the Paul Giamatti character reveals that he's an amateur magician and completely forgets to be officious in his enthusiasm for Eisenheim's illusions) where you can see Norton roll a ball back and forth over his fingers. It's a very simple, casual gesture, but it's just beautifully done. And kind of hot.

So I totally geeked out over the stage magic itself. Two other things I really liked: ( Read more... )

So, the movie’s coming out on January 9--Tuesday, I think? That’s the first thing they wanted me to mention. The second is that there’s an accompanying magic contest. Prize: One (1) Grand Prize: ATrip to the Magic Castle in Los Angeles ("The Magic Castle is a Hollywood landmark, and a well-known performance venue for the magic industry, being one of the most famous magic clubs in the world. It is a private clubhouse for The Academy of Magical Arts, an organization devoted to the advancement of the art of magic, with emphasis on preserving its history"). It sounds like you're supposed to film yourself (this is in the rules; you can't call in an expensive professional videographer or anything) performing some kind of magic trick, and I think you are allowed to have assistants ("third parties"). You then upload the clip to the contest site, much the way you'd upload it to something like YouTube. Judging criteria: "Winners will be selected by a panel of judges using the following criteria: creativity and originality of video (50%); quality and originality of magic trick (50%)." So presentation, as in all stage magic, does count. The interesting thing is that Steinmeyer notes in Hiding the Elephant that there are relatively few tricks a magician can perform. You can make something disappear, you can make something reappear, you can make something move from one place to the other, and so on. Most vanishing acts, for example, are done with mirrors or trapdoors; I'm not even sure how you'd do it otherwise. So as far as creativity and originality go, they're not asking you to reinvent the wheel; they're asking you to dress it up a little differently. So if you're interested in performing magic, or you know someone who is, you've got until January 31 to upload something. Dooooooo it.

Lamictal, day 8: Reading's getting a little easier if I try really hard. As proof:

Do you ever find yourself wondering about really arcane, random things? Like, I was watching the Prestige trailer again. I'd just watched it streaming before, but I downloaded it this time so my mother could see it (I'm going to try to sell her on the new Bond trailer as well; she's still mad that they didn't get Clive Owen. You know, even though she can't remember his name half the time. He used to be "King Arthur," now he's "That Guy from Inside Man"), so I watched it again. And I find myself wondering... where did magicians in that period (the book is set in the late 1870s, I think?) actually perform? Well, I did a little digging, and I found out that they generally performed on the vaudeville circuit in the United States and in music halls/variety theaters in Britain. And then I started wondering... where do the performers live? It's not like a circus, where they're basically carrying their own accomodations with them. Some of them seemed to stay in one place, maybe performing at more than one theater, but probably staying in one city, but that seemed more London-based; American vaudeville (particularly from what I've seen in Gypsy, set some 60-70 years later) seems a lot more nomadic. Did ordinary traveling B- and C-list performers just live at the theater while they were there? In (cheap, I assume) hotels? Was it kind of a pain in the ass to find a place to stay every time you moved on to a new city (which is why I'm wondering if there was some kind of set accomodation)?

The obvious solution would be to read a biography of such a performer--Robert-Houdin turned up as an interesting possibility. Houdini is the obvious choice, of course, although he was more early twentieth-century. What I noticed was, once I'd gotten sucked into a daisy chain of Wikipedia articles, you see several classic magic tricks in the Prestige trailer: the bullet catch, the vanishing cage (you actually see the secret of how that works), the Aquarian Illusion (which I don't think actually existed until recently), a little sleight of hand in passing, and the big trick that's Real Magic Zomg looks like a dressed-up version of your basic teleportation.

(What? Two movies about magicians this year, and you thought I wasn't going to get sucked into the history of stage magic?)

Speaking of Bond a long, long time ago up there, if you liked the trailer: updated Casino Royale gallery. Also at the trailer link: a download of the Catch a Fire trailer I mentioned the other week.

(I'm going to stake my money on it right now: somewhere, somehow, someone will not like the Bond movie, and they will write a negative review, and it will be titled "Royale with Cheese.")

Still Life Takes Top Honor at Venice. More importantly (for our purposes), Helen Mirren and Ben Affleck take top acting awards. Start your Oscar betting... now.

Ledger on the Joker: I Wouldn't Have Thought of Me Either. Heh.

Rumor: JKR Says Book Seven "up to about 750 pages." Sweet fancy Moses. I'll remember to rent a handcart when I go buy the book.

First Glimpse of Kingsley Shacklebolt and More in New King's Cross Report.

Models Flunk BMI, Get Spain Fashion Boot. That's right, bitches. You gotta have something to work.

Jilted bride turns wedding into benefit. No, not for herself, either.

In other news, I just realized that Marie Antoinette and The Prestige come out on the same weekend in October, and I am feeling something like panic--moviegoer's panic? Maybe we could swing another double feature, but I don't know...