There's magic in the air this week at Blockbuster.co.uk. To mark the release of thrilling period mystery The Illusionist, Marshall Julius takes a look behind the scenes of the movie and celebrates some of the cinema's greatest magicians, acknowledging the remarkable, real-life special effects wizards who give them their powers.

No one likes a good magic trick more than Neil Burger, director of The Illusionist, now available to add to your list. "The role of any magician," he enthuses, "is to remind us of the mystery of existence and inspire awe and wonder at that mystery. Seeing a great magic trick or illusion gives you a kind of chill and makes you think that perhaps there are powers greater than those of man, regardless of whether the magician possesses them or not."

A supernatural mystery combining romance, politics and magic, The Illusionist focuses on the enigmatic Eisenheim (Edward Norton) and his escalating battle of wills with Vienna's Crown Prince Leopold (Rufus Sewell), whose initial admiration for the magician turns to suspicion, rivalry and ultimately hatred.

"Eisenheim is darkly romantic, an enigma," says Norton. "he is mysterious and withholding, but at the same time, he is an incredible showman. As a person he is highly impenetrable, but on stage, he really comes to life and has this amazing presence - that's an interesting dynamic."

There's really not much difference between a magician pretending to have supernatural powers, and an actor pretending to be a magician, or anyone else for that matter. Both are pitching their own version of reality to an audience. The conjurer who convinces us that he can pull a rabbit out of a hat is basically the same as the thespian who convinces us he's another person entirely. Both are rather neat magic tricks. Both are, essentially, showbiz. And when you have an actor like Edward Norton, who not only inhabits his characters but develops their skills for real, that's when you get real movie magic.

"He completely inhabits the role," enthuses director Burger. "He threw himself into learning the magic, and conducted himself as those magicians did, in such a perfect way. We tried to do all the magic in the movie as closely as possible to how the tricks were done at the time, so Edward is actually performing the tricks that you see him do. He's so dedicated, he learned how to do them all."

Developing his skills to a professional level, Norton stunned his cast as crew as surely as Eisenheim amazes his fans in the film. "The first week of filming," recalls Burger, "we were in a theatre with about 350 extras in period dress for the stage performance scene, and Edward performed a trick he had learned - and he fooled everyone in the theatre, and all of us behind the camera. And it wasn't a fluke, because later, during a different scene, where he had to produce something out of think air, he got genuine reactions. Even Jessica and Rufus came up to his afterwards and asked, 'How did you do that?!?' There is still that little core in all of us that wants to genuinely believe in magic, which is a testament to the power and lure of it all."

From the dawn of man to David Blaine via the collected works of Tolkien, Rowling and scores of filmmakers committed to bringing their visions to life, magic has an appeal that is both timeless and universal. Before The Illusionist came Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, another period tale, this time about rival magicians. Coming next to DVD is the plainly titled Magicians, a comedy about much the same thing, starring Mitchell and Webb of Peep Show fame.

From illusionists to those who do it for real, at least in the movies, how about spending 10 or 11 hours in the company of mighty wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the wicked Saruman (Ian McKellen) in Peter Jackson's incomparable Lord of the Rings trilogy? Created by Tolkien, the realms of Middle Earth are rife with magic, both black and white. The same goes for Rowling's Harry Potter flicks, detailing the year-by-year training of a new generation of witches and wizards. If you're still hungry for wizardry after this little lot, wicked sorcerers abound in virtually every Ray Harryhausen fantasy (try Jason and the Argonauts for starters), though my all-time favourite magician is, I admit, Mickey Mouse as the sorcerer's apprentice in the best bit of Disney's classic Fantasia.

There are so many magical films and TV shows, from Hellboy and Dragonheart to Cinderella and I Dream of Jeannie, that it is, of course, impossible to capture them all within the confines of a single feature. Still, I'll always make room for witches, as the last thing I want to do is upset them and risk being turned into a frog. And so, for memorable witchy action, try adding The Wizard of Oz, Roald Dahl's The Witches, The Craft, Mary Poppins and Nanny McPhee to your list, not to mention TV sensations Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed and vintage sitcom Bewitched.

I'd like to end now with a quick shout out to some of the greatest effects technicians in Hollywood history. Guys who through a variety of make up, computer and practical effects, have, over the years, made believers of us all. Without the collected efforts of George Lucas's Industrial Light & Magic, and Peter Jackson's Weta Workshop, there'd be no Narnia or Harry Potter, no Orcs or dragons. Without the make up effects of Tom Savini, the mechanical effects of Stan Winston and the stop motion effects of Ray Harryhausen, to name just three, there'd be very little magic on screen at all, and we'd all be forced to use our imaginations, which is great when you're reading a book, but not so wonderful when you're watching a fantasy film.

Thanks then to Harryhausen, Winston and Savini, to Lucas and Jackson and Spielberg, to Gandalf, Potter and newcomer Eisenheim for making the cinema such a magical place.