''The Last Trick'' () is a 1964 Czechoslovak animated short film by

Jan Švankmajer Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934) is a Czech retired film director, animator, writer, playwright and artist. He draws and makes free graphics, collage, ceramics, tactile objects and asse ...

. It was Švankmajer's first film.

Plot

During the title sequence, the cast and crew are seen backstage preparing for their performance. The play depicts two

mime A mime artist, or simply mime (from Greek language, Greek , , "imitator, actor"), is a person who uses ''mime'' (also called ''pantomime'' outside of Britain), the acting out of a story through body motions without the use of speech, as a the ...

-like magicians (who are portrayed by both costumed actors and

Kuroko are stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre, who dress all in black. Lexical background 黒衣 is primarily read 'kurogo,' differentiating from the other readings kokui/kokue/kuroginu "black clothes" – the go/gi suffix underlining th ...

style puppets) named Mr. Edgar and Mr. Schwarzwald, trying to outdo each other by performing various stage tricks for the pleasure of an unseen audience. After each act, the two performers congratulate each other with a

handshake A handshake is a globally widespread, brief greeting or parting tradition in which two people grasp one of each other's hands, and in most cases, it is accompanied by a brief up-and-down movement of the grasped hands. Customs surrounding hands ...

. However, as tensions rise, the handshakes become less friendly and even violent. For his first trick, Edgar skins a

fish A fish (: fish or fishes) is an aquatic animal, aquatic, Anamniotes, anamniotic, gill-bearing vertebrate animal with swimming fish fin, fins and craniate, a hard skull, but lacking limb (anatomy), limbs with digit (anatomy), digits. Fish can ...

by placing it inside his

papier mache Papier may refer to : *paper in French, Dutch, Afrikaans, Polish or German, word that can be found in the following expressions: **Papier-mâché, a construction material made of pieces of paper stuck together using a wet paste **Papier collé '' ...

head; Schwarzwald one ups him by making a dog puppet perform various tricks on a

tightrope Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...

; Edgar in turn grows several arms and begins playing various instruments simultaneously; Schwarzwald imitates this trick by growing several heads and juggling them; and Edgar causes several chairs to come alive and perform tricks at the crack of a whip. For the magicians' last trick, Edgar and Schwarzwald make themselves disappear by tearing each other to pieces.

References

External links

* 1964 films Czechoslovak animated films Films directed by Jan Švankmajer Czech animated short films Surrealist films Czechoslovak animated short films 1964 directorial debut films 1960s Czech films 1964 animated short films {{short-animation-film-stub