Fugitive Apparitions - 1905

French movie. Although he produced, directed and starred in almost every category of film of the era with the possible exception of the western -- he left those to his brother Gaston in America, where he recruited Francis Ford, later more famous as John Ford's brother -- Georges Melies' most numerous films are those in which he appears as a magician, performing magic. As he started out as a stage magician and, indeed, went into film production for fillers during his stage shows, this is hardly surprising. But almost invariably, the magic in his movies is a mixture of stage and movie magic -- combining sleight-of-hand and trap doors with double exposures and hidden cuts.
In this short, he performs magic, but the techniques he uses are all those of the movie camera. A unique and interesting example of his work.