Magic, Spiritualism, and Cinema: Viewing Dispositives and Illusionist Spectacles in France in the Early Twentieth Century

In the early twentieth Century, the debate about ghosts, in which sceptics and believers opposed one another on the subject of paranormal phenomena, crystallized discourses of illusionist mise-en-scène. Prestidigitators, cinematographers, and scientists wondered about the probity of spiritualist mediums who claimed to be able to give life to spirits coming from the other world. This started a heated dispute between champions and opponents of Spiritualism, which involved challenging adversaries as part of standardized performances. The comparison between the three viewing dispositives of magic, Spiritualism, and cinema shows that, beyond partisan disputes, the stakes of such debates rested mostly in the mastering of illusionist spectacles aimed at stunning the public during a time when mass culture relied on the attraction of both magic and hyper-realistic representations