The Magic Lantern

Even before the invention of film in the mid 1890s, the works of Charles Dickens were transformed into an impressive variety of visual spectacles for audiences.

Aside from the many illustrations to his books, Dickens’ stories were adapted for the theatre and ‘phantasmagoria’ performances (a special effect which combined light and mirrors to create the illusion of a ghost appearing on-stage), as well as for the magic lantern, one of the cinema’s closest ancestors.

It was a two-way process. Not only were Dickens’ stories freely taken and used as source material for performances and projected images (there were no copyright laws in those days), Dickens himself was very much influenced by the huge variety of visual devices he saw around him.

In this short film we take you back to a time before the invention of cinema. Experience a magic lantern show at first hand, and find out how and why Dickens’ work was adapted for it.

Thanks to Mervyn Heard, the Charles Dickens Museum and the Bill Douglas Centre.

BFI Screenonline links

Screenonline is our online encyclopaedia of British film and television, featuring hundreds of hours of film and television clips from the vast collections of the BFI National Archive.

Video clips on Screenonline are available to view within registered UK libraries, schools and academic institutions.

Dickens on Film

The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/bdc/

A public museum and academic research centre housing one of Britain’s largest public collections of books, prints, artefacts and ephemera relating to the history and prehistory of cinema.
The Magic Lantern Society

http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/

A world-wide membership organisation comprising collectors, enthusiasts, students of film, visual media and popular culture, magicians, artists, performers, scientists and archival organisations.