FSF Magazine, March 2007 by Spilogale Authors

Author:Spilogale Authors [Authors, Spilogale]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Spilogale, Inc.
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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Films: The Magic of Lost Loves and Crushed Canaries by Kathi Maio

We live in a time when deception and illusion are everywhere. Dad touches up the family digital snapshots; Junior downloads his on-demand/for-a-fee term paper; Sis uses FX software to lighten her hair and increase her cup size and then posts her latest autobiographical video to YouTube; and Mom gets herself a “LifeStyle Lift” on her morning off.

Then there are the politicians, whose marketing consultants have taken “spin” and double-speak to unimagined new heights. (Give a legislative product a spiffy new slogan-friendly name—like “No Child Left Behind” or “Clear Skies Initiative” and no one will notice if it's actually going to do the opposite of what the name indicates.)

Forget about sleight of hand. We have sleight of everything. And although human trickery is certainly not a twenty-first-century invention, the cumulative effect in recent years has left us almost numb to the barrage of artifice and illusion (not to mention delusion) in modern life. But being a sucker every minute makes us wary, too. It is hard for any of us to give ourselves over to “magic” wholly. We want to be the one who can spot every scam. We want to be above the manipulation. We want to deconstruct the fantasy.

It's crazy somehow that one of the most popular magician acts of the day is a duo, Penn and Teller, who expose the secrets of half of their own stunts. They deconstruct on the spot. And they have a cable show, Bullshit, which is dedicated to debunking all manner of modern real-life deceptions from past-life regressions to the pure deliciousness of bottled water.

I applaud their showmanship and their pro-science truth telling. And yet, I can't help but think that what they're offering us is some sort of strange postmodern anti-entertainment. It may be the perfect diversion for a generation of cynical dupes, but is it really open-hearted fun? Sadly, I think not.

Once upon a time, of course, audiences were a tad less cynical about prestidigitation. Oh, they knew that the stage magician's art consisted of trickery. And in the back of their heads they were saying “How'd he do that?” But in those days, suspension of disbelief was a bit easier to pull off. At the very least, the crowds who thronged to see the great conjurers of their day took great delight in being “fooled."

It is no wonder, then, that two recent and relatively successful films about stage magicians are both from another time and place, namely fin de sicle Europe. They both tell a good old-fashioned story. And it might be argued that both, as the trite phrase goes, “hearken back to a simpler time” when audiences still wondered whether sleight of hand and genuine sorcery might co-exist in the stage wizardry of entertainers who weren't afraid to put the word “Great” in front of their names.

The first of the two released is the better film, by far. And despite the fact that it

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