The Prestige is a film that is particularly interesting film in the way it
mirrors the subject material at hand. In essay or other critical forms of
writing, the strongest writers can reflect the topic therein discussed in their
own reflection on the subject material. Christopher Nolan, the director, takes
the material of magic and topos of deception in the subject of the magicians at
hand, and reflects it in his movie directive style. Within The Prestige, the
magicians aim to deceive their audience by sleights of hand, dropped curtains,
and many other means. In many ways the magicians – Hugh Jackman and Christian
Bale – make their living off of deception. They are so committed to deception
that they severely alter their lifestyles; Christian Bale’s character, Borden,
goes to such an extreme point as having himself and his twin become one person
in order to keep up an illusion trick seen in the ‘Transported Man’. One
brother has to even cut off parts of his fingers to keep the chimera going; one
twin is always dressed up in the form of Fowler to conceal his true identity.
Christopher Nolan, as the auteur, mimics this subject of deception because he hides
the truth from the viewer- i.e. we are unaware the Christian Bale has a twin.
The film audience is easily likened to the audience in the magic shows because
both are present to be deceived and entertained. Nolan really wanted to drive
home the theme of deception in the magicians’ lives that he furthers it in his
style of point of view and intentionally leaving out information that he could
have revealed to his audience. The significance of this film is the commentary
that it gives on the idea that directors need to aim to reflect the subject
material analyzed within the film in his or her own directing style.
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ReplyDeleteGreat post. I was really dumbfounded during the film's final scene and the revealing of Borden's twin, yet Nolan leaves us a few clues that we should have picked up on. For example, there is a scene where Borden is about to put on a disguise similar to Fallon's normal appearance, but Olivia tells him that it is not clever enough. I thought this was Nolan outright telling us to look out for Fallon's true identity, without giving away the allure of the film.
ReplyDeleteThroughout the film, Nolan, an auteur, includes these little details that fly right over the viewer's head, but really if scrutinized would give away the entire plot. This is just how illusions are only interesting until the process behind them is unveiled.
Time after time, Nolan gives us the answers to the illusions he creates in The Prestige, but the audience ignores them blatantly. Cutter, the most knowledgeable character in the film, knows that Borden has a double of some sort, but Angier and the audience ignore him. I racked my brain trying to find an alternative explanation to this trick, couldn't, but still refused to accept Borden having a double. Even when Borden interrupts Angier's trick, someone had to have been performing his show across the street. There are many other details in the film that would appear as flaws until the reveal of Fallon as Borden's twin.
It was interesting to see the actual process behind some of the magic tricks of the film, but I though that Nolan was really trying to tell the viewer to take much closer readings of the films they watch, and to better attempt to make note of all of the details along the way. Nolan as an auteur uses very minimal, but important elements in creating his films.
Zachary, your analysis for the film is sound, relevant, and precise. Though I agree Nolan is definitely an aueteur, I'd tend to believe that the film should be analyzed on the level of a formalist approach. I, like yourself, truly enjoyes analyzing the film. I enjoyed the part of the film where Christian Bale is exploring the white hall with the different dead bodies stored within the walls of the white hall. Using the lighting, Nolan makes this scene much more, appealing, for lack of a better word. On the contrary, when Bale is exploring the hall with all of Jackman's dead bodies, we see the similarity and parallelism of the two hallways, yet because of the lighting and colors in this scene, we are much more comfortable and see the more dark aspect of the movie. In addition, another example of analyzing the film on a formalist approach is when we watch Christian Bale's character killed when he is hanged. As the viewer we notice the symmetical camera angles on how he's hung, and the dark setting in which he is hung, yet something seems off, and we soon find out, when we notice that Bale's twin sacrificed himself for Bale's work, and for the well-being of his brother's daughter. All in all, I could explore much more into the formalist aspects of The Prestige, as I will in my paper, but for now, these are some of my critiques and analysis of The Prestige from a formalist approach.
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