There are a couple novel tricks in this one-minute, one-scene attraction from early cinema pioneer Georges Méliès. "The Magician" is one of the filmmaker's earliest surviving trick films, and it displays many features common throughout his oeuvre. There are appearances, disappearances and transformations of characters and objects, accomplished via editing, which Méliès had been doing in his films since at least "The Vanishing Lady" (Escamotage d'une dame au théâtre Robert Houdin)(1896) (his earliest available trick film). Once again, Méliès also plays the magician in front of the camera, as well as behind it. One of the seeming novelties of "The Magician" is that some of the tricks, or cuts, occur during action—when the characters are moving about or are in a mid-air leap. The magic is created from almost truly invisible editing—cutting on action without any change in camera setup or angle.
The second novelty here is a double exposure. According to historians, Méliès had previously used this technique in "Le cabinet de Méphistophélès" (1897), which is now a lost film. Currently, "The Magician" appears to be the earliest surviving instance of his use of the attraction. In this film, he uses it to show a woman's dismembered head atop a statue stand. The black background gives the trick away and can be seen in many other films where the director employs multiple-exposure photography. The actress would also have been covered in black below her head, so that her body wouldn't register on film. His "The Four Troublesome Heads" (Un home de tête)(1898) took multiple-exposures and disembodied heads further—fivefold, to be precise. Additionally, it seems the most exposures Méliès achieved were seven, such as in "The One-Man Band" (L'homme orchestre)(1900).
