''The Last Trick'' ( cs, Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara) is a 1964 Czechoslovak animated short film by

Jan Švankmajer Jan Švankmajer (; born 4 September 1934) is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his stop-motion animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Terr ...

. It was Švankmajer's first film.

Plot

During the title sequence, the cast and crew are seen backstage preparing for their performance. The play depicts two

mime Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an Internet standard that extends the format of email messages to support text in character sets other than ASCII, as well as attachments of audio, video, images, and application programs. Message ...

-like magicians (who are portrayed by both costumed actors and

Kuroko are stagehands in traditional Japanese theatre, who dress all in black. Lexical background 黒衣 primarily read kurogo, differentiating from the other readings kokui/kokue/kuroginu "black clothes", the go/gi suffix underlining the wearing i ...

style puppets) named Mr. Edgar and Mr. Schwarzwald, trying to outdo each other by performing various stage tricks for the pleasure of an unseen audience. After each act, the two performers congratulate each other with a

handshake A handshake is a globally widespread, brief greeting or parting tradition in which two people grasp one of each other's like hands, in most cases accompanied by a brief up-and-down movement of the grasped hands. Customs surrounding handshakes a ...

. However, as tensions rise, the handshakes become less friendly and even violent. For his first trick, Edgar skins a

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

by placing it inside his

papier mache Papier may refer to : *paper in French, Dutch, Afrikaans, Polish or German, word that can be found in the following expressions: **Papier-mâché, a construction material made of pieces of paper stuck together using a wet paste **Papier collé, a p ...

head; Schwarzwald one ups him by making a dog puppet perform various tricks on a

tightrope Tightrope walking, also called funambulism, is the skill of walking along a thin wire or rope. It has a long tradition in various countries and is commonly associated with the circus. Other skills similar to tightrope walking include slack rope ...

; Edgar in turn grows several arms and begins playing various instruments simultaneously; Schwarzwald imitates this trick by growing several heads and juggling them; and Edgar causes several chairs to come alive and perform tricks at the crack of a whip. For the magicians' last trick, Edgar and Schwarzwald make themselves disappear by tearing each other to pieces.

References

External links

* 1964 films Czechoslovak animated films Films directed by Jan Švankmajer Czech animated short films Surrealist films Czechoslovak animated short films 1964 directorial debut films 1960s Czech films {{short-animation-film-stub