Transcript Eisenheim The Illusionist

Eisenheim The Illusionist
Prof. Myrna Monllor Jiménez
English 124
• Sepia toned
•Grainy film texture
• Imitates turn of the century
films
• Initially looks as if the
audience is looking through
a lens
Historical Background
Harry Houdini
• Born in Hungary
• Jewish
• Took his name from Robert Houdin, a French
magician
• Accused of fraud by the police when he
visited Germany
• known as an escape artist
• Exposed spiritualists
Houdini’s Spirits
Vienna at the turn of the 20th
century
• a hotbed of radical politics and a
crucible of intellectual and artistic
change.
• widespread discontent, a crumbling
moral order and myriad cracks in the
coherence of empire
• city of Mahler, Freud, Klimt, Wagner
Quotes from the story
• “It was the age of levitations and
decapitations, of ghostly apparitions and
sudden vanishings , as if the tottering
empire, were revealing through the
medium of its magicians its secret
desire for annihilation”
• “Stories, like conjuring tricks, are invented
because history is inadequate to our
dreams…”
• “ All agreed that it was a sign of the times;
And as precise memories faded, and the
everyday world of coffee cups, doctor’s visits,
and war rumors returned, a secret relief
penetrated the souls of the faithful, who knew
that the Master had passed safely out of the
crumbling order of history into the
indestructible realm of mystery and dream.”
Central Conflicts of the Story
• Political turmoil in Vienna
• Spiritualism and illusionists
Narrator
Story
3rd person narrator
Reporting/Facts
Film
Omniscient narrator
Inspector Uhl
Plot Development/Structure
Story
Historical Background
Eisenheim’s story told
in chronological order
Eisenheim’s
disappearance without
any explanation
Plot development film
• Eisenheim at the
theatre (in media
res)
• Inspector Uhl’s
telling of the story in
flashback, which
ends with Eisenheim
at the theatre
• Inspector Uhl solves
the puzzle
• Coda/the lover’s
reunite
Central Conflicts in the film
• Eisenheim’s love for
Sophie
• Eisenheim’s battle
against the
government through
Uhl and Leopold
Characterization
Story
Eisenheim
• Self-absorbed
• Competitive
• Loner
• Seems to have preferred becoming an
illusion himself
Uhl
• Very minor character
• Does not have any significance within the
story
Eisenheim’s description
• “Eisenheim was a man of medium height,
with broad shoulders and large, long-fingered
hands. His most striking feature was his
powerful head: the black intense eyes in the
austerely pale face, the broad black beard,
the thrusting forehead with receding hairline,
all lent an appearance of unusual mental
force. The newspaper accounts mention a
minor trait that must have been highly
effective: when he leaned his head forward,
in intense concentration, there appeared over
his right eyebrow a large vein shaped like and
inverted Y. “
Antagonists in the story
“Benedetti, whose real name was Paul Henri
Cortot, of Lyon, was a master illusionist of
extraordinary smoothness and skill; his mistake
was to challenge Eisenheim by presenting
imitations of original Eisenheim illusions.”
“Benedetti stepped into a black cabinet and
was never seen again.”
“ Passaeur took the city by storm; and
for the first time there was talk that
Eisenheim had met his match, perhaps
even…his master.”
“ Passaeur’s final performance was one
of frightening brilliance…Suddenly he
burst into a demonic laugh, and
reaching up to his face he tore off a
rubber mask and revealed himself to be
Eisenheim.”
Eisenheim
Characterization
Film
The hero
•Blurs the distinction between illusion and reality by “crossing
boundaries”.
•“exercises power” through people’s credulity
Inspector Uhl
The antagonist
• basically a moral character forced by circumstances to
act against his principles
• empathizes with Eisenheim
• is Eisenheim’s equal
• analytic
Sophie
The love interest
• willing to risk anything for love
• believes in Eisenheim unconditionally
• his equal in intelligence
Prince Leopold
• A fictional Crown Prince based on
Prince Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria
• The Mayerling Incident (Marie Vetsera)
Prince Leopold
The villain
“It’s a trick, it’s an illusion.”
“He tries to trick you, I try
to enlighten you.”
•Analytic and scientific
•Despot
• Cowardly
Symbols
The tree
Butterflies
Cards
The Locket
The Sword
The Gems
The playing card
“And you kept it all this time”
Symbols
upside down butterfly
Mirrors
Excalibur
Where does power come from?
Image of Entrapment
Endings
Suspension of disbelief
• How does Inspector
Uhl know the intimate
details of
Eisenheim’s
relationship with
Sophie?
• How is it that
Eisenheim’s picture falls
exactly beside the
emerald?
Building Suspense
• Beginning with the
ending
• Sophie and
Eisenheim not being
able to disappear
the first time
• Sophie’s fake death
• Eisenheim’s tricks
• Clues
the orange tree
the locket
the gems
• Eisenheim’s
appearance at the end
Quotes
• “one day we will go away together, we’ll
disappear”
• “ fate and chance, these are the forces
of nature”
• “ the soul’s endurance beyond life”
• “Perhaps, I’ll make you disappear.”
Bibliography
• http://www.darkhorizons.com/2006/illusi
onist.php
• http://www.landmarktheatres.com/mn/ill
usionist.html