Alcofrisbas, the Master Magician (original) (raw)

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1903 film by Georges Méliès

Alcofrisbas, the Master Magician
Directed by Georges Méliès
Starring Georges Méliès
Productioncompany Star Film Company
Release date 1903 (1903)
Country France
Language Silent

L'Enchanteur Alcofribas, sold in the United States as Alcofrisbas, the Master Magician and in Britain as The Enchanter, is a 1903 French short silent film by Georges Méliès. It was sold by Méliès's Star Film Company and is numbered 514–516 in its catalogues.[1]

The magician's name, variously spelled Alcofribas or Alcofrisbas, is derived from Alcofrybas Nasier, a character in the book Pantagruel (and a near-anagram of François Rabelais, the book's author).[2] Méliès himself stars as Alcofrisbas; the woman whose head appears in closeup, sometimes misidentified as Jehanne d'Alcy, is unknown.[3] The film's special effects include pyrotechnics, a waterfall, substitution splices, multiple exposures, and dissolves.[3]

  1. ^ Malthête, Jacques; Mannoni, Laurent (2008), L'oeuvre de Georges Méliès, Paris: Éditions de La Martinière, p. 346, ISBN 9782732437323
  2. ^ Ezra, Elizabeth (2000), Georges Méliès, Manchester: Manchester University Press, p. 93, ISBN 0-7190-5395-1
  3. ^ a b Essai de reconstitution du catalogue français de la Star-Film; suivi d'une analyse catalographique des films de Georges Méliès recensés en France, Bois d'Arcy: Service des archives du film du Centre national de la cinématographie, 1981, p. 160, ISBN 2903053073