Performing Illusions. Cinema, Special Effects and the Virtual Act

"Our ability to manufacture fraud now exceeds our ability to detect it." So claimed Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino), the Pygmalion film director beguiled by a virtual actress of his own creation in Andrew Niccol´s slightly disappointing S1m0ne. Yet the casting of a flesh-and-blood actress (Rachel Roberts) in the role of the eponymous "synthespian" serves only to highlight how far away the achievement of such imperceptible illusion was in 2002 and still remains today. What´s more, Dan North argues, the ultimate perfection of such a con job would somehow miss the whole point of the enterprise. After all, as N. M. Klein perspicaciously asks, "What good is sleight of hand if you cannot see the hand?"