The Perfection Perspective

I like this film's perspective on the haunting quality of the age-cherished magic act, and how the magician himself can be haunted by ghosts of sentiment and danger.

I wanted to suggest that The Illusionist invites audiences to ponder the delicate experience created by the special 'contract' between entertainer and audience, and how even when the audience does not know what to expect can certainly expect to be viewing something simply un-ordinary.

With that said, I thought it would be nifty to offer a thematics spin on this rich film (which is a great Blu-ray disc and boasts a stellar cast).

This 'spun story' involves a magician (like Eisenheim [pdf: http://www.rakahn.com/shared/llusionist.pdf]) who is equally haunted by the pedestrian ghosts of traffic but is made into a spectre by the reflective forces of self-doubt.



=====

Erasmus hated his father and wished he could run away to Romania and learn about Count Dracula and begin his stage magic acts performing saw-cutting illusions on pretty female volunteers. Erasmus's father Aristotle would beat him every Saturday night, questioning why his son refused to study his books about medicine and science. Erasmus wanted to be a libertine, but his well-to-do but alcoholically abusive father had plans to mold his son into a doctor.

On his 21st birthday, Erasmus introduced his father to his new girlfriend, Alisha, who was a bright and beautiful 20 year-old Austrian woman whom Erasmus met at a magician's show in Paris. Aristotle clearly disproved of Alisha who looked too middle-class to marry his son Erasmus. In fact, Aristotle had arranged a marriage for Erasmus to Shelbye, Princess of Monaco. Aristotle beat his son in front of Alisha, and Erasmus and Alisha ran out of the house humiliated.

Erasmus, devastated by the humiliation, could not find the internal psychological courage to manage his courtship with Alisha. The two parted, and Erasmus ran away to Romania, swearing never to forgive his father for what he had done. Erasmus landed in Transylvania and became a recluse for three years, studying magician manuals and books about magic tricks and illusions while working part-time at a restaurant to afford the rent for his small apartment.

On his 26th birthday, Erasmus worked up enough funds and equipment and training to present his own one-man live magic show on stage in front of a quaint little opera-house audience in Transylvania. Erasmus asked two women to serve as volunteers for a special saw-cutting illusion. The illusion looked perfect, and the audience was amazed, and Erasmus disappeared after receiving a loud applause. Two weeks later, the two female volunteers who participated in Erasmus' stage illusion were found dead in a garbage dump, actually cut in half (with a saw).

Erasmus scribbled his suicide-note fiercely in his diary:

"December 4 ---

Sharon and Therese were excellent Romanian prostitutes I picked up and recruited to be the female stage volunteers for my saw-cutting act at the Transylvanian opera-house. They were not women Romanians would miss, so I used them as my guinea pigs. I actually cut them in half, but the audience only thought they were seeing an illusion. I killed them on stage! I may not be a magician, but I will always be a shadow!"

=====



😷


The Illusionist (YouTube):


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFGZltxdKSU