History Film / TheIllusionist2006

%%* AdaptationExpansion:

''The Illusionist'' revolves around a report delivered mostly in flashback by Uhl (Giamatti), a police inspector in late nineteenth century Vienna assigned to investigate Eisenheim (Norton), a magician who has caused uproar due to his apparent ability to summon and communicate with the souls of the dead. This by itself would be enough to get their attention, but the matter is further complicated by Eisenheim's personal motives; for many years he has been in love with a girl he met as a child, to whom he made a promise to rescue her from her unhappy life and disappear with her to start anew. Which would be fair enough, if it wasn't for the fact that the girl is now Sophia, Duchess of von Teschen (Biel) and the fiancee of the cruel and dominating Crown Prince of Austro-Hungary (Sewell). This leads Uhl to a case revolving around murder, treason and jealousy where nothing is as it seems and nothing can be trusted -- not even the evidence of his own eyes...

* WouldHitAGirl: The prince often does if the rumors about him beating his previous girlfriends are true.

A 2006 PeriodDrama loosely based on Steven Millhauser's story "Eisenheim the Illusionist", starring Creator/EdwardNorton, Creator/PaulGiamatti, Creator/JessicaBiel and Creator/RufusSewell.

No relation to the [[WesternAnimation/TheIllusionist 2010 animated film]].

A 2006 PeriodDrama loosely based on Steven Millhauser's story "Eisenheim the Illusionist", starring Edward Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel and Rufus Sewell.

* AlasPoorVillain: While the Crown Prince without doubt is a jerkass, the ending lets you wonder whether he really was so evil as he was made out to be, especially because it is revealed that his motive for preparing a coup was not mere selfishness and lust for power, but his sincere belief that his father was unable to lead the Empire into the future. Did he really deserve to be [[spoiler: framed for a murder that not only did he not commit, never even happened in the first place?]]

A 2006 PeriodDrama loosely based on Steven Millhauser's story "Eisenheim the Illusionist".

''The Illusionist'' revolves around a report delivered mostly in flashback by Uhl, a police inspector in late nineteenth century Vienna assigned to investigate Eisenheim, a magician who has caused uproar due to his apparent ability to summon and communicate with the souls of the dead. This by itself would be enough to get their attention, but the matter is further complicated by Eisenheim's personal motives; for many years he has been in love with a girl he met as a child, to whom he made a promise to rescue her from her unhappy life and disappear with her to start anew. Which would be fair enough, if it wasn't for the fact that the girl was Sophia, Duchess of von Teschen and the fiancee of the cruel and dominating Crown Prince of Austro-Hungary. This leads Uhl to a case revolving around murder, treason and jealousy where nothing is as it seems and nothing can be trusted -- not even the evidence of his own eyes...

* NotSoDifferent: Uhl attempts to convince Eisenheim to trust him by relating that he is not the member of the social elite Eisenheim thinks he is, but in fact shares a similar, humble background.

* BrokenPedestal: The people's reaction to Eisenheim when he told them (under threat of going to jail for fraud) that he was not really summoning spirits back to life, that it was all a trick. They should have known, but still...

** In fact, the prince as presented in the movie more closely resembles not Rudolf, but another Austrian Crown Prince, Franz Ferdinand (yes, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI that]] one). His wife's name was Sophie, and she also was of Bohemian descent (unlike Rudolf's Marie von Vetsera), though she only became a duchess as a result of her (morganatic) marriage to the heir apparent. He had authoritarian inclinations not unlike those depicted in the movie (Rudolf, by contrast, was more of a liberal), was very active politically (whereas Rudolf basically didn't have enough time to develop political career before his suicide) and strongly disagreed with Franz Josef's manner of rule (though still not to the degree of actually contemplating a coup against him). Konopiště castle shown in the film was actually Franz Ferdinand's last residence (those innumerable horn trophies on the walls one can easily see in the movie? those are the real results of Frankie's notorious large-scale hunts). And, of course, both he and his wife also died tragically as a result of shooting...

** In fact, the prince as presented in the movie more closely resembles not Rudolf, but another Austrian Crown Prince, Franz Ferdinand (yes, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI that]] one). His wife's name was Sophie, and she also was of Bohemian descent (unlike Rudolf's Marie von Vetsera), though she only became a duchess as a result of her (morganatic) marriage to the heir apparent. He had authoritarian inclinations not unlike those depicted in the movie (Rudolf, by contrast, was more of a liberal), was very active politically (whereas Rudolf basically didn't have enough time to develop political career before his suicide) and strongly disagreed with Franz Josef's manner of rule (though still not to the degree of actually contemplating a coup against him). [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konopi%C5%A1t%C4%9B Konopiště]] castle shown in the film was actually Franz Ferdinand's last residence (those innumerable horn trophies on the walls one can easily see in the movie? those are the real results of Frankie's notorious large-scale hunts). And, of course, both he and his wife also died tragically as a result of shooting...

** In fact, the prince as presented in the movie more closely resembles not Rudolf, but another Austrian Crown Prince, Franz Ferdinand (yes, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI that]] one). His wife's name was Sophie, and she also was of Bohemian descent (unlike Rudolf's Marie von Vetsera), though she only became a duchess as a result of her (morganatic) marriage to the heir apparent. He had authoritarian inclinations not unlike those depicted in the movie (Rudolf, by contrast, was more of a liberal), was very active politically (whereas Rudolf basically didn't have enough time to develop political career before his suicide) and strongly disagreed with Franz Josef's manner of rule (though still not to the degree of actually contemplating a coup against him). Konopiště castle shown in the film was actually Franz Ferdinand's last residence (those innumerable horn trophies on the walls one can easily see in the movie? those are the real results of Frankie's notorious large-scale hunts). And, of course, both he and his wife also died tragically as a result of shooting...

** In fact, the prince as presented in the movie more closely resembles not Rudolf, but another Austrian Crown Prince, Franz Ferdinand (yes, [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI that]] one). His wife's name was Sophie, and she also was a duchess of Czech principality (unlike Rudolf's Marie von Vetsera). He had authoritarian inclinations not unlike those depicted in the movie (Rudolf, by contrast, was more of a liberal), was very active politically (whereas Rudolf basically didn't have enough time to develop political career before his suicide) and strongly disagreed with Franz Josef's manner of rule (though still not to the degree of actually contemplating a coup against him). Konopiště castle shown in the film was actually Franz Ferdinand's last residence (those innumerable horn trophies on the walls one can easily see in the movie? those are the real results of Frankie's notorious large-scale hunts). And, of course, both he and his wife also died tragically as a result of shooting...

** And then there's the contrary example - even taking into account all the class issues, it is difficult to understand why the Duchess of Teschen thinks of the farm near Prague as of something "exotic", since it's the neighboring province of the same country both then and now (and Prague was and is much larger than small Teschen). Even if we take the standpoint of Vienna as an imperial capital and not Teschen, Prague is still not that far away and was the second or third largest city of the same Habsburg Empire as Vienna, thus still hardly an "exotic" place.

''The Illusionist'' revolves around a report delivered mostly in flashback by Uhl, a police inspector in late nineteenth century Vienna assigned to investigate Eisenheim, a magician who has caused uproar due to his apparent ability to summon and communicate with the souls of the dead. This by itself would be enough to get their attention, but the matter is further complicated by Eisenheim's personal motives; for many years he has been in love with a girl he met as a child, to whom he made a promise to rescue her from her unhappy life and disappear with her to start anew. Which would be fair enough, if it wasn't for the fact that the girl was Sophia, Duchess of von Teschen and the fiancee of the cruel and dominating Crown Prince of Austro-Hungary. Thus leads Uhl to a case revolving around murder, treason and jealousy where nothing is as it seems and nothing can be trusted -- not even the evidence of his own eyes...

* ControlFreak: The Crown Prince, full stop. Between having Sophie followed around everywhere to [[spoiler:planning to overthrow his father the emperor]] its clear the man believes he must be in control of everything. Also ties into his motive to find out the secret of Eisenheim's illusions. Unlike the chief inspector who has a genuine fondness and respect for the magic tricks, the crown prince simply wants to show everyone has much smarter he is by figuring them out.

''The Illusionist'' tells the story of Eisenheim, a magician in Vienna in the late 1800's and the childhood promise he made to a girl that someday, they would both disappear. The film begins near its climax and most of the film takes place in a FlashBack.

* EurekaMoment: The inspector figures out what's really going on, complete with [[OnceMoreWithClarity montage of all the key moments from the film]], just too late to do anything about it.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Rudolf, the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, who is renamed Leopold in this telling. [[spoiler:Even around the unclear circumstances about his apparent suicide, there aren't any clear proofs indicating he were plotting against his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary.]]

* EurekaMoment: The inspector figures out what's really going on, complete with montage of all the key moments from the film, just too late to do anything about it.