“The Prestige” (2006)
The Best of Christopher Nolan — Vol 2.
The Best of Christopher Nolan — Vol 2.
Last evening I re-released the first of only two film blog articles I’ve written to date containing the genius that was David Bowie. Whereas he was a vampiric creature of the night in Tony Scott’s 1983 cinematic debut The Hunger, here he turns to the mythic and some would say deliberately covered up life of Croatian born inventor Nikola Tesla, in what I would also argue is Christopher Nolan’s second bona-fide masterpiece for the ages.
Away from Bowie and Tesla you have Bale and Jackman, and as a childish fan of magic since the forming of my first human memories, I revere and obsess over this film almost like no other. My “almost” list in this context grows by the hour it seems! From David Copperfield as a kid through the BBC magical staple of Paul Daniels for two decades or more and more recently, Derren Brown and David Blaine, magic holds a simple fascination that is explored so beautifully and simply in The Prestige: you want to know the secret, you know it’s a trick, an illusion, yet your eyes and ears are clearly lying to you. Aren’t they? A simple example: David Blaine holds a pack of 52 playing cards. He requests his guest to sign one card and replace in the deck without the magician seeing before throwing the entire contents of the pack of cards at a window and one, yes you’ve guessed it, one card is magically on the reverse of the window and voila, it’s the signed card. Ridiculous. Can’t possibly happen. But the camera reveal shows that it indeed can (or can it?) as the card is shown very definitely on the reverse side of the window.
Here’s the best part: Even if you know how any trick is performed, there’s always the prestige, or from the very, very best, the outlandishly unexpected, even for a trick you’ve worked out and seen through. Thus is magic.
Thus is The Prestige, and sixteen years on, it’s a genuine masterpiece that will never age.
My original review is reproduced in full below and after my opus blog article on the entire career of the London born filmmaking genius I revere almost like no other and yes, that list is growing longer by the cinematic day too.
I hope you enjoy.
Christopher Nolan and his entire cinematic catalogue.
Following, Memento, Insomnia, The Dark Knight Batman trilogy, The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar, Dunkirk and Tenetmedium.com
“Are you watching closely?”
“Every magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary, a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object, perhaps asks you to inspect it to see that it is indeed real”
“But of course, it probably isn’t. The second Act is called “The Turn”. The Magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now, you’re looking for the secret, but you won’t find it because of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t really wanna know. You want to be fooled. But you won’t clap yet”
“Because making something disappear isn’t enough. You have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third Act. The hardest part. The part we call “The Prestige”.
With so many twists and turns and unexpected events, this is another masterpiece that is difficult to describe and do justice to without spoilers, so please bear with me as I try! And as I say so many times to so many people, if you haven’t seen this film before, you simply have to. And you’ll watch again and again as you piece together the multitude of little hints and nods as you watch for a second, third or fourth time. It’s a multi layered treat of a film with some stand out performances which I’ll come to after a brief admission as to my own obsession with magic, tricks and illusions. I’ve always been obsessed by magic from an early age but of recent times David Blaine and particularly Derren Brown are my heroes in this regard as they continually produce illusions and tricks that truly boggle the mind and have you grasping for the reason or The Prestige. It truly brings out the child in me and fascinates and perplexes me in equal measure. And for that I’m forever thankful. And it’s never quite what you expected, is it?. Anyway…
Starting with the cast, and what a stellar cast it is. Some of the best character actors of our generation are here: Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Hugh Jackman, Scarlett Johansson and Andy Serkis ably supported by Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall and a scene stealing cameo from David Bowie. To the screenplay: written by Christopher and his brother Jonathan based on Christopher Priest’s novel of the same name. Wally Pfister is again masterly as Director of Photography, and David Julyan again returns to provide a haunting score throughout. The closing credits play out with Thom Yorke’s great song “Analyse” and how very, very apt.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
The film opens with the very premise of the whole movie, that every magic trick or illusion comes in three parts or acts. Part one is The Pledge, two is The Turn and three is The Prestige. Quickly this is shown through edited snippets of various different tricks showing the three acts but before you can fully absorb this process, the film moves quickly to a court scene, describing in detail how such a past act had gone horribly wrong. This court scene is near present day, but set around the turn of the 20th Century. The continuous back story is provided by an intense narration and the reading of two diaries, from two different characters, in two very different locations and circumstances. Often cut between the two characters, writing and reading the diaries, the outline detail is provided, but this is very much just the beginning. From the ill fated trick onward, the film constantly deceives you, delights you, pleases you, challenges you and can often break your heart along the way.
The ill fated trick splits the friendship of two magicians. “Alfred Borden” (yet another powerful performance from Christian Bale) and “Robert Angier” (a stylish Hugh Jackman). Friends and rivals, they are seeking the ultimate illusion and are surrounded by equally rich in depth characters. “Cutter” sees Michael Caine as a magician’s Ingenieur, a creator of the physical aspects to the illusions, and Caine is brilliant throughout. “Olivia”, a magician’s assistant is played brilliantly by the underrated Scarlett Johansson and completing the triumvirate of wonderful female supporting roles (in a very much male dominated film) is “Julia” played by Piper Perabo and “Sarah” by a brilliant Rebecca Hall.
Character detail has been left deliberately vague so as to not hint at potential spoilers. There are two further performances worthy of note: “Alley” sees Andy Serkis on top form, assisting “Nikola Tesla”, with David Bowie in a stunning cameo. The minor drawback here are the scant few scenes with Bowie, who is flawless. It’s also interesting to note how Nikola Tesla leaves our screens and cue the age old conspiracy theory! But there’s far more fact than fiction (or indeed “Theory”) where this is concerned, but I’ll leave that for another day. Rather, here’s a brief dissection of his two albeit brief scenes:
Angier is striding purposefully towards Nikola Tesla’s mountainside retreat after finally securing a desired audience with the inventor. Entering his “workshop” he is greeted by an electrical current running throughout the room and especially in the corner of the room and looks aghast. Alley, reassures him “It’s perfectly safe”.
Shortly thereafter, Tesla comes striding through the electrical current and greets Angier with a firm handshake after complimenting him on his magic shows. He then shows Angier an example of what is possible as they hold hands again, with Angier’s free hand holding an unconnected light bulb: “What’s conducting the electricity?” asks an astonished Angier to which Tesla’s reply is a simple “Our bodies, Mr Angier, are quite capable of conducting and indeed producing energy”.
A brief cut scene follows as all three men enjoy lunch on a balcony enjoying the hills and mountains that surround them. Alley is only briefly in shot whilst the camera is continually back and forth between Tesla and Angier as they tellingly discuss love, dreams, their obsessions, their life’s work and of course Angier’s request for Tesla to build the ultimate illusion machine, his purpose for being here today. Before we reach this conclusion and the end of a very short scene, David Bowie steals the scene brilliantly:
A film of constant deception, of obsessively striving for that one unique trick, of envy and how that eats away at the soul. It’s also a further, and indeed heightened take on the question of does the end justify the means? It can also be viewed as a tale of redemption, but ultimately it’s a tale of broken friendships and a total devotion to the art of magic and producing a unique illusion. The rivalry throughout even encompasses that of Tesla and his competitor Thomas Edison but it centre’s on a working class magician prepared to “get his hands dirty” and that of an aristocratic showman seeking the adulation of the crowd for his one, ultimate unique trick.
Christopher Nolan infuses his own devotion to the art of film making here, to bring us a film so unique, so well told, so well layered and so beautifully shot and captured that it remains a joy to watch, and watch again. Both Wally Pfister (Cinematography) and Kevin Kevanaugh (Art Direction) were nominated for Oscars, both ultimately losing out. However, this film is a real treat and a cinematic masterpiece that never ages.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 100 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“The Hunger” (1983)
The Best of Tony Scott — Vol 4.medium.com
“Memento” (2000)
The Best of Christopher Nolan — Vol 1.medium.com
“Fight Club” (1999)
The Best of David Fincher — Vol 1.medium.com