''A Spiritualistic Photographer'' () is a 1903 French silent

trick film In the early history of cinema, trick films were short silent films designed to feature innovative special effects. History The trick film genre was developed by Georges Méliès in some of his first cinematic experiments, and his works remain ...

directed by

Georges Méliès Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès ( , ; 8 December 1861 – 21 January 1938) was a French magic (illusion), magician, toymaker, actor, and filmmaker. He led many technical and narrative developments in the early days of film, cinema, primarily in th ...

. It was released by Méliès's

Star Film Company The Manufacture de Films pour Cinématographes, often known as Star Film, was a French film production company run by the illusionist and film director Georges Méliès. History On 28 December 1895, Méliès attended the celebrated first publi ...

and is numbered 477–478 in its catalogues. The film parodies the faked images of ghosts created by

Spiritualist Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at least ...

mediums; Méliès, a fervent critic of Spiritualism, here uses it as an opportunity to show off a new special effect, a transformation created with a dissolve on a white background.

Stage magic A stage illusion is a large-scale magic trick. As the name implies, stage illusions are distinct from other types of magic in that they are performed a considerable distance away from the audience, usually on a stage, in order to maintain the illu ...

tricks featuring a similarly mocking attitude toward Spiritualism were often performed in the French fairgrounds for which Méliès produced many of his films. The film's concept can be seen as the reverse of those in Méliès's films ''

The Living Playing Cards ''The Living Playing Cards'' () is a 1905 French silent trick film directed by Georges Méliès. Synopsis A magician enters a stage set on which a large white screen has been placed. Taking a deck of playing cards, he shows one to the camera, m ...

'' and '' The Lilliputian Minuet''; in those films, living people come out of portraits, while in this case the portrait comes second. Méliès appears in the film as the magician. The gilded setting and stools used here reappear in several of his other films. The special effects were created with

pyrotechnics Pyrotechnics is the science and craft of creating fireworks, but also includes safety matches, oxygen candles, Pyrotechnic fastener, explosive bolts (and other fasteners), parts of automotive airbags, as well as gas-pressure blasting in mining, q ...

substitution splice The substitution splice or stop trick is a cinematic special effect in which filmmakers achieve an appearance, disappearance, or transformation by altering one or more selected aspects of the mise-en-scène between two shots while maintaining t ...

s, dissolves, and

multiple exposure In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be ide ...

s. The film survives in the form of a 35mm

paper print Paper prints of films were an early mechanism to establish the copyright of motion pictures by depositing them with the Library of Congress. Thomas Alva Edison’s company was first to register each frame of motion-picture film onto a positive pap ...

References

French black-and-white films French silent short films Films directed by Georges Méliès 1903 films 1900s French films Trick films Articles containing video clips {{1900s-France-film-stub