“The Prestige” — Read Along
Abracadabra!
At just a tick behind “Memento” in my affections for the greatest cinematic achievement from London born filmmaker Christopher Nolan (I’d explain why but you’d only forget before tattooing clues all over your body and imploring me to remember someone called “Sammy Jankis”) “The Prestige” is Nolan’s second bona fide masterpiece in a quarter of a century full of them. OK we’ll skip over “Insomnia” (despite an incredible against type performance from the one and only Robin Williams) and “Tenet”, whilst a breath taking achievement, leaves me cold and confused and if you’d ever put down that damn Polaroid camera and stop taking pictures, I’d be happy for you to explain this film to me.
Of the eight remaining films in his cinematic canon to date, two of his three Batman movies are faultless (“Batman Begins” being my personal favourite), “Inception” provided a blueprint that has seen many imitators but no equals, if you don’t cry at “Interstellar” then you have a heart made of purest stone and “Dunkirk” could’ve been an overblown, Hollywood three hour epic and instead, it’s 106 minutes of pure perfection. Then last Summer arrived with the eagerly awaited “Oppenheimer” that according to Cillian Murphy took only 59 days to shoot!
All of these films are lovingly appreciated and presented to you, spoiler free, in the immediate links below. But as we’re all here for a little distraction that only magic can truly achieve, here’s a snippet from my original review of “The Prestige” that I penned well over a decade ago as the cinematic works of Christopher Nolan formed the basis of my very first film appreciation blog article:
“Starting with the cast, and what a stellar cast it is too. 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”.
So welcome to Volume 5 of my “Read Along” series whereby I present to you dear reader my original spoiler free review of a favourite film together with my reading of it to camera via my Youtube and Rumble channels. You now have the choice whether to simply read my review, read it alongside my video reading of it or skip merrily on by and on to the next article of interest contained within our collective Matrix. If you decide to stay I sincerely hope you enjoy and if you do, perhaps you’d like to take a peek at my “Essential Film Reviews Collection” on Amazon. There are 7 exhaustive volumes available in e-book/Kindle form and should you have an Amazon “Unlimited” package, you can read each and every volume for free.
I’ll leave you to it, but are you watching closely?
"The Prestige" - Original Review
"Christopher Nolan and his entire cinematic catalogue"
"Oppenheimer" (2023) - Original Review
"The Prestige" - My Youtube "Read Along" video
"The Prestige" - My Rumble "Read Along" video
"The Essential Film Reviews Collection" - Available via Amazon
Thanks for reading. Here are volumes 1 through 4 from my “Read Along” series:
"The Man Who Wasn't There" - Read Along