Escamotage d'une dame chez Robert-Houdin (English: Magical Disappearance of a Lady at the Théâtre Robert-Houdin; or simply The Vanishing Lady) is a French short silent film released in 1896. It was directed by Georges Méliès, starring him and Jehanne D Alcy.
It depicts a magician and his assistant walking into a room. The magician puts a chair in the middle for the assistant to sit on before the former spreads a shawl over the latter, then the assistant disappears when he removes the shawl. The magician waves his arms to manifest the assistant's skeleton on the chair, surprising himself. He puts the shawl back, then removes it again to reveal the assistant alive in her normal self again.
Tropes:
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: There are only one man and one woman.
- Minimalist Cast: There are only two characters; the magician and his assistant.
- Nameless Narrative: Everyone is left unnamed.
- Stripped to the Bone: The magician spreads a shawl over his assistant to make her disappear, then casts a spell to make only her skeleton appear. But he succeeds to reverse it by putting back the shawl over the skeleton, then removing it again, showing his assistant alive and well.