Hark, ye charlatan!

Rating: Null/10 (4 September 2012)

Neil Burger's "The Illusionist" stars Edward Norton as a Eisenheim, a master magician who falls in love with Jessica Biel's Duchess Sophie von Teschen. Their romance irks the Austrian Crown Prince, who wishes to eliminate Eisenberg, but who fears to do so because the young magician is immensely popular with the masses. The Crown Prince thus sets loose his head of security, played by Paul Giamatti, to investigate Eisenheim and develop a method of tactically dispatching the magician. Eisenheim, meanwhile, wages an unconventional war on the Prince.
For most of its running time this is a stylish, unique film. Burger bathes each frame with sepia light, his cinematography rich and moody, resembling a room full of half-lit candles, each frame dim around the edges, like old footage torn from a dying projector. His depiction of 1900 Vienna is similarly cosy, with his cast of suited gentlemen, top-hats, horse-drawn carriages, cobblestones and lovely Viennese, Baroque architecture. Combine with a score by Philip Glass and you have a unique form of Romanticism; Visconti opulence meets a Hollywood sensibility.
There are other nifty things scattered about. We're initially unsure whether Eisenheim's magic tricks are supernatural miracles or simply very good cons, Edward Norton's performance (is he villain or desperate lover?) is riveting and Burger's balcony shots of Eisenheim's performances preserve the integrity of turn-of-the-century spectacle. Eisenheim's illusions – hushed, riveting, almost paranormal – are themselves design to conjure up the work of cinema's great illusionist, George Melies, who around the same period was dazzling minds with his blend of magic and early movie-making.
Mostly, though, the film is interesting for its war between state – the Crown Prince and Emperor Franz Joseph I – and its lowly magician. Eisenheim, who the masses believe to be a genuine sorcerer, essentially begins to have his own cult, a populist army which he uses to defend himself against the Prince, who of course seeks his death. Through his shows, Eisenheim then begins to overtly attack the Prince, accusing him or murder, treason and conspiracy. This subplot recalls everything from early religious blood cults (even Jesus himself, who supposedly, like Eisenheim, was originally a carpenter), which the Romans, Jews and Greeks feared to tamper with lest they instigate populist uprisings, or historical figures and/or groups like Maximilien de Robespierre, the Jacobin Club etc, some of which were responsible for the French Revolution. Eisenheim isn't just a magician, he's, in the eyes of the state, a pervert and subversive.
Unfortunately "The Illusionist" begins to collapse as it progresses. The film gets smaller and smaller and all the interesting possibilities it affords are shut down, until it climaxes with a final act revelation in which "all is explained". By its end, "The Illusionist" is just a Hollywood con movie, with a routine "flashback/revelation" climax that was itself in vogue at the time of its release ("Usual Suspects", "Signs", "Sixth Sense", "The Village", "The Others" etc etc). The film missteps further in explaining Eisenheim's magic (a better director would have left the possibility open for the supernatural) whilst paradoxically not explaining it enough (if you're going to rule out the paranormal, then explain these incredulous tricks properly). Meanwhile Jessica Biel's too athletic and muscular for her role and the Crown Prince, played by Rufus Sewell, eventually turns into just another pantomime villain. The film's period details (admirable considering its small budget) themselves get smaller and less enticing as we progress; Burger doesn't explore his sets, his streets, his castles and can't convey any spatial, architectural or environmental "sense" outside Eisenheim's theatre halls.
Incidentally, the Crown Prince here is based on the real, hotly debated death of Archduke Rudolf Joseph, which led to Archduke Franz Ferdinand becoming the heir to the throne of Austria. Ferdinand's assassination in 1914 was one of the chief ripples which helped trigger World War I. So Eisenheim's love affair had a bigger legacy: he plunged Europe into war and effectively changed the whole Western World. The film ignores all this.
Many compare "The Illusionist" to "The Prestige" and complain that the former's "magic sequences" are incredulous and/or a cop-out because they utilise CGI. "The Prestiege", of course, was about two rival magicians who each found a different means of creating "the greatest trick ever". One creates the illusion of teleportation by simply using a twin and enduring some physical pain, the other goes through an elaborate plan which uses science, Tesla coils, clones and replicas which he must then murder. The idea is that the second magician perverts "magic". His teleportation is literal, a feat of science. The first magician utilizes a more noble form of misdirection, his planning and penance akin to the medieval craftsman's sacrifices to his art. In "The Illusionist" Eisenheim is akin to the first magician, but his magic is treated as being spiritual; he's more witch or sorcerer.
Burger's use of CGI, especially on second viewing, appropriately conveys the feeling that Eisenheim's magic is far beyond the possibilities of 1900s magic. We are deceived, and the effect on us is the same as it would have been on audiences of the time. The problem is not the CGI, but Burger's later, literal revelation that Eisenheim had no powers. Meanwhile Burger has himself said that the film's climax is "not what really happened". It's just one character's (and ours?) perception and willingness to believe that Eisenheim escaped and that his lover is alive. "That's one way to do it," Eisenheim says of his magic, but we never see conclusive prove that "this is how it was".
Incidentally, Burger's previous movie was a pseudo-documentary which fabricated an interview with JFK's assassin. All the magical tricks in "The Illusionist" - no matter how incredulous they seem here - were performed and invented in the 1800s by magicians like Henry Dircks and Jean Robert-Houdin.
8/10 – Similar films: Bergman's "The Magician" and Malle's "Thief of Paris". Two viewings required.