The Prestige - 'Have you watched Closely?'

The Prestige - 'Have you watched Closely?' - Part I

A story-teller and the best of his kind in Hollywood would be Christopher Nolan. Like literature, his stories has all the elements and is always told with layers within layer. Though, the fast moving shots and detailed script leaves less space for self-reflection, he presents his philosophies through the actions of his character and gives more importance to the narration/story rather than space and silence. If we would place (which we shouldn't but only for getting an idea) him in the literary world, he is closer to Charles Dickens and farther from Dostoevsky and Hemingway.

"The Prestige" is a master piece of story telling; attaining the unattainable. I could write just one piece on it explaining it's perfection which many fail to notice. Because, "They are not really looking. They want to be fooled!"

This film, like the magic trick, is presented in three parts:

The Pledge : Here, a director shows you something ordinary. But of course.... it probably isn't.
A man who is not guilty of a murder is served with a death penalty.
Borden is held responsible for the murder of Robert Angier. We see Angier dies and Borden is not the one who did it.
The Turn: Here the director takes that 'something ordinary' and makes it do 'something extraordinary'!The man who was murdered is actually alive and is playing Borden. Still, the man (Borden) has to suffer and face the death penalty.
The Prestige:
But you wouldn't clap yet, the director has to bring Borden back and so he does the most difficult part called 'The Prestige'. Borden comes back and kills Angier.

This film works like a magic spell on you. One would just observe these three parts in the film and 'you want to know the secret'. Superficially, Angier's mystery is answered by Tesla's cloning machine...

But, Have you watched Closely?

The film takes us on a journey. A journey as true as the words in the journal.
Angier leaves for Tesla in a coach. But visiting Tesla is just as true as Angier's words in the diary.

(Solved in Part II)

Comments

The whimsical phrases of 'Capital I'

10 years from now, this film would be remade and probably then the original would be looked upon. There hasn't been a cinematic piece in a long time which was driven solely by such individualistic expression. Be it the philosophical discussion or contemplative imagery, everything screams of the psyche of one individual - 'Capital I'. **Read this after watching the film once** Visually profound and intelligently crafted, at the core of this film you can find an identity and a story embedded in each other. The story of a girl struggling to identify herself with a strict sexual orientation and resorts to 'something' to escape her reality, while a physics professor helps her resolve the conflict in her mind. The identity of a mysterious character named Capital I is presented through its work - visuals and poetry, driven by curiosity among various characters in the film about it. The film portrays the two themes uniquely, bravely. However a harmonic fusion betw...

Le Quattro Volte

A very beautiful film with no dialogues at all. Empty spaces and long silence is used for self-reflection, reflecting our own act of perception. A film that needs to be seen with no preconceived notions about it. You could watch the trailer here: http://bit.ly/17Pk0rw ** Spoiler Alert ** First Time: An old man is shown lost in vague emptiness. He probably lost his way in the society (like a goat!), and resorts to some superstitious beliefs to survive his deteriorating health. No matter how absent minded he might be, he perfectly herds the cattle. It’s like he was doing the same thing for so long that it became a mechanical process. His cautiousness about the cattle (finding the bell in the forest) is very natural. We see him die, maybe, due to already degraded health or the mishap (loosing of the sacred packet) which made him fail to carry-on his belief on which he was living. We are faced with a doubt about which of the two took his life? Second Time: With o...

Sheru

'Sheru' is a Hindi word meaning LION in English, this was the closing statement of the film which stayed with me a lot longer than it's running time. An euphoric feeling of finding something special mixed with an attachment to the characters and story, made me write about it. Even though the structure is that of a typical Hollywood narrative - context, conflict, climax, but the film is more about the emotional depths it touches in that structure. The film left three words in my mouth - 'Brilliant Fucking Acting'. - Read this after watching the film once - As exhilarating it was an experience of discovering one's identity, this film, for it's commercial viability, has been biased to portray a one-dimensional story. However, the director leaves a few cues here and there to instill curiosity in the mind of an active watcher for other characters as well. Nicole Kidman playing the role of Sue Brierley narrates a vision of hers in which She sees a brown...

Films that Matter

Search This Blog