The Magic Book (1900) User Reviews (5)

Familiar elements telling a familiar style story.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 7 September 2020]

"Le Livre Magique" ("The Magic Book") is a Georges Méliès film with many familiar aspects to it. It's a magic show AND it features characters from the Italian Commedia Dell'Arte--something which the filmmaker seemed obsessed with and featured in many of his short films.

The story begins with a bearded magician putting a gigantic book on his bench. As he goes through the pages, the characters pop off the book and gather about in his room. And, like most magic shows, by the end he's sent these Italian characters back into the book from whence they came.

Nothing particularly earth-shaking here...just more familiar Georges Méliès magic. Well made for 1900 and often copied by his contemporaries.

No, mr. Méliès, I don't wanna go back! I don't wanna go ba...

[Kitahito · 6/10 · 27 March 2021]

Méliès gives life, only to then take it. A playful, but cruel god of the motion picture indeed. Well, to be fair, at least the conjured figures from the magic book managed to get a few seconds of small talk with the lady before they had to go back to 2D. A brief moment of joy in exchange for the pure terror of ceasing to exist yet again? Was it worth it? That's one of the big questions of life...

From Meieis's Library

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 11 November 2017]

A sorcerer of some kind brings out a gigantic book. It is a picture book with drawings of different people. There is a clown, a jester, a young pretty girl, etc. As the story goes, the people jump off the pages and interact. Because the girl is beautiful, the three males immediately set upon her. It is a bit troubling. Things soon get settled down with a natural solution to the problem. This is another one of those episodes where inanimate things become human.

The Magic Book

[Michael_Elliott · 28 March 2008]

Magic Book, The (1900)

*** (out of 4)

aka Le Livre magique

A magician (played by Melies) goes into his chamber where he pulls out a giant book, which features various characters. With the help of magic he brings the characters to life and then turns them back into the pages, although one guy gives him a bit of trouble. This is a delightful film from Melies and offers up some nice magic as well. The special effects still hold up quite well and that includes the ending where the book falls on the magician but I won't tell you what happens next. The highlight is certainly the one character who won't go back into the book and what it takes to keep him under control.

Méliès on books

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 22 November 2015]

"Le livre magique" or "The Magic Book" from 1900 is another from these uncountable Méliès short films. It runs for almost 3 minutes and basically shows us in its entirety how the magician brings characters to life, literary characters out of a gigantic book. So, it's not magic in the traditional sense, but movie magic as it all has to do with trick photography. In my opinion, this was an okay watch. I have seen better, more interesting movies from Méliès, but also worse ones. In 1900, the very first sound and color movies were made, but this was not by Méliès and his work here is still silent and black-and-white as usual. All in all, this is an okay watch for people with a deep interest in the early days of film, but everybody else can skip this one.