Upside Down; or, The Human Flies

Upside Down; or, the Human Flies is an 1899 British short silent drama film, directed by Walter R. Booth, featuring a conjuror sending his audience to the ceiling. The film, "exploits a very simple illusion: that of filming with the camera turned upside-down so that the actors appear to be performing on the ceiling," and according to Michael Brooke of BFI Screenonline, "the effectiveness of the final result is such that nearly seventy years later Stanley Kubrick used the same technique in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)." The conjuror was reputedly played by Booth himself.



^ Brooke, Michael. "Upside Down; or, the Human Flies". BFI Screenonline Database. Retrieved 2011-04-24.

Synopsis

Dans un salon, devant deux couples, un prestidigitateur effectue un tour : il emprunte un chapeau, une passe, et le chapeau s'envole au plafond. Mais il ne s'en tient pas à cela. Il fait lever tout le monde, effectue une autre passe qui le fait disparaître. Les deux couples sautent en l'air... et se retrouvent la tête en bas, sur le plafond avec le chapeau, incapables de redescendre !