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Cinematic special effects ask us to believe in them and boast that they are beyond belief. The various means of manipulating the film image should at once be seamless and they should astound. We will look at the history and theory of special effects in cinema from a comparative perspective across national industries starting in the 1930s. What motivates the use of special effects in different cultures and industries? What ideologies and tensions might they reveal? We will also consider the theoretical implications and literary analogues of the special effect in case studies up to the present.