Orson Welles' Magic Show

Directed by: Orson Welles
Country: United States
Elsewhere: IMDb

The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

This is a collection of unfinished footage of Orson Welles performing magic tricks directly for the camera. He introduces each trick and explains that no camera tricks are involved. The footage was shot over several years and later assembled into a short film by a museum.

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What happens

Orson Welles' Magic Show is an unfinished television special by Orson Welles, filmed between 1976 and 1985. In it, Welles performs various magic tricks for the camera, promising that no trick photography is used. Welles had a lifelong interest in magic, having been taught his first magic tricks by Harry Houdini in the 1920s, when Welles was still a boy. He had already demonstrated his magic tricks in a number of films and television programmes including Follow the Boys (1944), Magic Trick (1953), Casino Royale (1967), and on his own unsuccessful 1979 pilot for The Orson Welles Show. After Orson Welles' death in 1985, all of his unfinished films were bequeathed to his long-term companion and mistress Oja Kodar, and she in turn donated many of them (including Orson Welles' Magic Show) to the Munich Film Museum for preservation and restoration. In 2000, the Munich Film Museum then edited together the complete footage into a 27-minute cut, which has subsequently been screened at numerous film festivals. The restored footage has never been released on video or DVD. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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