The Illusionist
Stories, like conjuring tricks, are invented because history is inadequate to our dreams. –Steven Millhauser, “Eisenheim the Illusionist”
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Obviously the texture and tone of these films are different. But Burger’s exceptional gifts as a storyteller and as a director of actors are fully apparent in both, and he’s up to something similar in both, playing with the imagination and credulity of the viewer. I’m reminded of a statement Orson Welles made to an interviewer in 1938, the year of his War of the Worlds radio hoax, before he started making movies: “I want to give the audience a hint of a scene. No more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the theater meaning: when it becomes a social act.”
In The Illusionist we’re less likely to identify with either Leopold or the magician, and more with Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti)–a character who feels sympathy for the magician but owes allegiance to Leopold and is therefore divided and compromised. He’s also the story’s only narrator. Giamatti’s performance is subtle, expressive, and richly nuanced. He also gives the character a slight Viennese accent, as Norton does his. Tellingly, Sewell’s accent is much heavier, which according to fairy-tale convention marks him as a villain. As in Interview With the Assassin the suspense underlying the story’s mysteries is the moral suspense concerning our credulity and how we relate to the power or powerlessness of the characters.
