{"id":19815,"date":"2020-03-02T23:16:36","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T23:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=19815"},"modified":"2020-03-03T13:45:20","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T13:45:20","slug":"a-brief-history-of-invisibility-on-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/a-brief-history-of-invisibility-on-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"A brief history of invisibility on screen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marc Longenecker<\/a>, Wesleyan University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

What would you do if you could be invisible? Would this newfound power bring out the best in you, instilling you with the courage to discreetly sabotage the efforts of evildoers? Or would the ability to slip in and out of rooms unnoticed tap into darker impulses?<\/p>\n

This alluring fantasy has long been fodder for filmmakers, many of whom have taken cues from the eponymous character in H.G. Wells\u2019 1897 novel, \u201cThe Invisible Man<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

First adapted to the screen in 1933, the invisible man (and his descendents) appeared in six films from 1933 to 1951. Now, he\u2019ll be making his latest screen (dis)appearance in a film directed by Leigh Whannell. This iteration<\/a> takes a horror-movie tack: Its protagonist, played by Elisabeth Moss, is harassed by an ex who has faked his own death. But beyond \u201cThe Invisible Man\u201d franchise, the concept of invisibility has inspired a raft of movies over the decades.<\/p>\n

As a film professor who studies adaptations and series<\/a>, I\u2019m most interested in the versatility of these invisible characters. They can star in cautionary tales or embody underdog heroes; they can act as vessels for social critique or vehicles for masochistic power fantasies.<\/p>\n

The mechanics of invisibility<\/h2>\n

For almost as long as people have been appearing onscreen, they\u2019ve been disappearing. French illusionist and experimental filmmaker Georges M\u00e9li\u00e8s<\/a> was one of the first to toy with the concept of invisibility. Using hidden cuts, he would create the illusion of a character vanishing into thin air.<\/p>\n