THE PRESTIGE

[jo]

The Prestige is now available on Netflix. The GQ reviewer thinks it is Nolan's best movie. In other quarters, such as the defunct IMDB message boards, it was also generally regarded as Nolan's best film.

www.gq.com/story/christopher-nolans-best-movie-is-now-on-netflix

By Kevin Nguyen
15 hours ago

Over a decade later, the dueling-magicians movie The Prestige still holds up.

In a particularly brutal sweep, Netflix recently removed Buffy, The X-Files, and House. There’s still plenty of great stuff on Netflix, but one movie that’s quietly made it to the service is Christopher Nolan’s best and most underappreciated movie: The Prestige.

Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play dueling magicians in 1890s London. Which I realize is a hard sell, since nobody wants to see one magician, let alone two. But magic (lol) is hardly the point. The Prestige is a film about obsession and competition—and the lengths that men will go to just to prove that they are better than each other. The characters’ motives might be shallow (whose proverbial magic wand is bigger?), but the plotting is above and beyond any other Nolan movie, and it’s admirable how effortlessly it moves non-linearly from present to flashback without losing its central threads, culminating in a couple of extremely clever plot twists.
Throughout, The Prestige performs a careful balancing act with the viewer’s sympathies, alternating between the tragic nature of Angier (Jackman) and the overly determined Borden (Bale). It’s a single trick of Borden’s called the Transported Man that sends Angier into a consuming jealousy when he can’t figure out how it’s performed. Bale does his usual trick of getting through his lines with a winning mumble, but it’s Jackman’s textured, muted performance that sells The Prestige’s moody pastiche—just another instance where he proves himself to be one the most underappreciated pleasures of Hollywood.


The Prestige plays to all of Nolan’s strengths (tone, scenery, dudes crying) and has none of his weaknesses (any fight scene).

The rest of the cast is stacked: Michael Caine as the film’s sole moral compass, Rebecca Hall with her signature interior anxiety, Scarlett Johansson dryly seductive, Andy Serkis in a rare IRL role, and most brilliantly, David Bowie as the mercurial inventor Nikola Tesla. If there’s any charge against the film, it’s that the ensemble doesn’t get a little more to do. (And consistent with the rest of Nolan’s work, there is a little bit of ickiness in how all the female characters exist solely as plot devices for the men.)

Is The Prestige really Nolan’s best film? You can always make a strong case for Memento, and I think time will treat Interstellar more favorably than its initial reception. (The Dark Knight films are, sadly, already showing their age.) But in many ways, The Prestige plays to all of Nolan’s strengths (tone, scenery, dudes crying) and has none of his weaknesses (any fight scene). Throughout nearly all of his films, Nolan dances around the idea of what defines heroism and villainy. Usually he uses monologue and voiceover as a crutch to get the point across. With The Prestige, he’s in the thick of it, comfortable in the ambiguity, unwilling to give us easy answers about who’s right and who’s wrong (even if there is a whole lot of Michael Caine-splaining).

The movie came out in 2006, and after watching it last week, I was impressed just how well it holds up, even though I’d remembered the plot twists. The reveals are great, but unlike a lot of Christopher Nolan's work, it's not a movie that hinges on them. The Prestige is Nolan at his most restrained, before the horn-pumped braaaanggs of Inception or the antihero bombast of the later Batman films. Besides Insomnia, The Prestige is his quietest movie, and over a decade later, it still says the most.

[jo]

Another look into Chris Nolan's film portfolio ( given his forthcoming DUNKIRK war movie) from various film buffs, with each blogger suggesting his choice of Nolan's Best Movie -- and it is not surprising to find another vote for THE PRESTIGE as his best.

theringer.com/the-best-christopher-nolan-movie-is-b98a4c5f0d28

Here are the details of the vote for THE PRESTIGE --

‘The Prestige’

Kate Knibbs: How many Christopher Nolan movies feature arch supporting turns from David Bowie, again? Ah, that’s right. Just 2006’s dueling-magician thriller The Prestige, which also happens to be Nolan’s best film.


Christopher Nolan has made a ton of great films, and also Interstellar, so it’s not like I want to champion The Prestige by dismissing his other work, although in the spirit of The Prestige’s hyper-competitive dueling magicians, I will say that it’s the most rewatchable Nolan film by far. Unlike most of his other hits, The Prestige has a plot enhanced by its convoluted high-concept twists rather than defined by it. The story is anchored in believable human emotion by strong performances from Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale as rival illusionists obsessed with beating each other, and while part of the joy of watching the movie is following its wild narrative, their recognizable human conflict is its heart. It’s grittier and more grounded than anything else Nolan has done, with an ingenious structure and sci-fi flourishes that are balanced by a moody realist setting and strong acting work. I realize it sounds weird to say the most psychologically realistic Nolan movie is about sociopathic magicians, but it’s true!

[jo]

Vulture revisits Christopher Nolan's films - THE PRESTIGE sits on the top 3 ( with only new film Dunkirk and The Dark Knight ranked higher) --


www.vulture.com/article/christopher-nolan-movies-ranked.html

3. The Prestige

Nolan’s sole literary adaptation — based on Christopher Priest’s 1995 novel — also features his most subtle, complex characters. As dueling magicians in turn of the century London, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are both charming and sinister in their obsessions with one another. Maybe that’s why, unlike so many other films that rely on “puzzle”-like structures and big twists, The Prestige continues to work so well on repeat viewings; if anything, it improves and gains depth the more you watch it. It’s also a dazzling magic trick in its own right, with an intricate plot that keeps doubling back on itself and throwing red herrings at us. As in so many Nolan pictures, the movie’s structure and its effect on the viewer echo the characters’ own psychological journeys. Nolan understands something about his audience: He lays out everything we need to figure out what’s happening, but it’s all just a bit too macabre for us to put two and two together. So we wait … until that incredibly disturbing, final image. (Aaand then a ridiculous Thom Yorke song plays over the end credits, but the less said about that, the better.)

In all these reviews of Nolan's filmography, it is never mentioned that the film is based on the more macabre novel of the same name by Christopher Guest. It's true that the screenplay adapted by the Nolan brothers changed the story around somehow, but still the eerie feeling one gets from the storytelling and characterization originally came from the novel by Guest.

Jo

[jo]

Another review of the Nolan filmography ranks THE PRESTIGE as # 5, but the author does mention that it was an adapted screenplay --

entertainment.ie/cinema/news/Christopher-Nolans-films-ranked-from-Best-to-Worst/395492.htm

5. THE PRESTIGE (2006)

The Prestige was the first of Nolan's post-Batman films, which contrasted heavily with the rigid confines of the Batman universe. The Prestige was an intriguing choice for Nolan; it's his first - and to date, only - adaptation of a novel. For pedants, Memento was a novella - not a novel. Anyway, casting Christian Bale against Hugh Jackman as Victorian-era magicians with a jumbled-up structure that practically begs you to take notes isn't what you'd expect from the guy who reinvented Batman. Yet, as if by magic, The Prestige crawls under your skin. The muted colours work with a story that slowly builds into a crescendo. There are no extended fight sequences, there is no moment of clarity or resonant moment. It's a thoughtful meditation on the price of success and what it means. For Nolan, it could have been a biography. A director who finally had international success - but what did it mean when he had it?

"there is no moment of clarity or resonant moment. It's a thoughtful meditation on the price of success and what it means."

Not sure that the reviewer fully appreciated the movie. Was it a thoughtful meditation on the price of success and what it means -- did he say that because it stemmed from contrasting narrations by Angier and Borden -- wasn't it more about the search for perfection gone wrong and which had turned into ruthless obsession?

"with a jumbled-up structure that practically begs you to take notes"

I thought Nolan laid out the plot points and how the characters portrayed their increasing obsession quite clearly. I think the author, by making references to the Batman franchise, was expecting a storyline and characterizations that are more simply defined as in the comicbook film adaptation genre.


Jo

[jo]

And another ranking of the Nolan films, with The Prestige placed on 5th --

www.konbini.com/us/entertainment/christopher-nolan-best-movies-dunkirk/

5. The Prestige

A year on from Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale teamed up once again for The Prestige. Pitting Bale against Hugh Jackman, Nolan opens up an enchanting world that sees two former friends and magicians become enemies. 
Between perverse manipulation and spectacular tricks, The Prestige was so much more than a simple revenge story; it also marked a new playing ground for Christopher Nolan's endless talent.

A revenge story?? I think he did not fully appreciate the ultimate message of the movie - how the search for individual perfection leads to ruthless and destructive obsession. What was particularly disturbing from the movie was the unravelling of the humanity of the two players and the horror of each unveiled step to perfection. To me, the more horrifying road was the one taken by Borden -- how he disfigured himself simply to fool Angier and more horrifyingly how he fooled his wife into thinking that the two brothers were the same person ( which ultimately led to her suicide). Angier sacrificed himself so he can find the perfection he sought. His taking of the child might have been motivated by part revenge, but the child did not ultimately suffer as she became the ward of a supposedly prominent member of society (instead of remaining the child of a felon who was hanged).

More interestingly for me, Nolan made the paths taken by the two protaganists as one which will lead to destroying each other directly. Not so, in the original novel -- each took his own path in the end, with what was in store for Angier even more horrifying.

Jo

[jo]

Variety is running a poll on which is the best Nolan film --

variety.com/2017/film/news/christopher-nolan-best-movie-poll-1202500433/

Of course I cast my vote for THE PRESTIGE -- also one of Hugh Jackman's best movies!

[njr]

Jul 19, 2017 17:41:24 GMT -5 jo said:

Vulture revisits Christopher Nolan's films - THE PRESTIGE sits on the top 3 ( with only new film Dunkirk and The Dark Knight ranked higher) --


www.vulture.com/article/christopher-nolan-movies-ranked.html

3. The Prestige

Nolan’s sole literary adaptation — based on Christopher Priest’s 1995 novel — also features his most subtle, complex characters. As dueling magicians in turn of the century London, Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are both charming and sinister in their obsessions with one another. Maybe that’s why, unlike so many other films that rely on “puzzle”-like structures and big twists, The Prestige continues to work so well on repeat viewings; if anything, it improves and gains depth the more you watch it. It’s also a dazzling magic trick in its own right, with an intricate plot that keeps doubling back on itself and throwing red herrings at us. As in so many Nolan pictures, the movie’s structure and its effect on the viewer echo the characters’ own psychological journeys. Nolan understands something about his audience: He lays out everything we need to figure out what’s happening, but it’s all just a bit too macabre for us to put two and two together. So we wait … until that incredibly disturbing, final image. (Aaand then a ridiculous Thom Yorke song plays over the end credits, but the less said about that, the better.)

In all these reviews of Nolan's filmography, it is never mentioned that the film is based on the more macabre novel of the same name by Christopher Guest. It's true that the screenplay adapted by the Nolan brothers changed the story around somehow, but still the eerie feeling one gets from the storytelling and characterization originally came from the novel by Guest.

Jo

You keep saying Guest, but it is Priest, which the above review does mention.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prestige

Nancy

[jo]

Sorry

My mind ( or is it my fingers) must have been wandering

I actually have the book.

Jo

[jo]

In this tribute article on Chris Nolan, re his new film release DUNKIRK, there is brief mention of Hugh Jackman's strong charisma on the big screen --

www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jul/22/christopher-nolan-dunkirk-batman-observer-profile-profile

The director has attracted favourable comparisons to Kubrick since his earliest movies, largely owing to his technical expertise and clinical, controlled tone. In his bond with the studio there are echoes, too, of the devotion Warner Bros showed to Kubrick from the mid-60s onwards.

Like that director, Nolan has been accused of coldness. Any warmth and sympathy in his work, his detractors claim, tends to come solely from his actors, especially Pearce in Memento, Hugh Jackman in The Prestige as a magician who knows he will never be as good as his rival, or Heath Ledger’s posthumously Oscar-winning turn as the compellingly damaged Joker in The Dark Knight.

[jo]

Spot the differences

[njr]

Aug 2, 2017 4:26:35 GMT -5 jo said:

Spot the differences

Earlobes and nose. And weren't his teeth different?

Nancy

[jo]

Raging debate now on whether Christopher Nolan is a great auteur/filmmaker or not!

This one offers many counterpoints --

www.tracking-board.com/going-to-war-over-christopher-nolan/

[jo]

Another running theme in Nolan's filmography -- the case for widowers!

filmschoolrejects.com/evolution-christopher-nolans-widowers/

Warner Bros.





The Prestige (2006) could be argued to have two (or three) protagonists, but since far fewer of his secrets are kept from the audience, I would argue that the main character is Robert (Hugh Jackman). Early in their careers, Robert and Alfred (Christian Bale) are friends. The friendship ends when Robert’s wife drowns during a magic trick because she can’t undo the knot Alfred has tied around her hands. This sparks a desperate, lifelong feud.

Just like Leonard in Memento, Robert becomes obsessed with his wife’s killer. But unlike Leonard, he knows exactly who his target is. And instead of killing him, he devotes his life to besting him, to being a better magician. Healthy it is not, but this obsession is at least focused more outward—Robert lives his life, and he excels at what he loves. His revenge is productive, rather than destructive.

And most importantly, he has an eye to the future. When Robert sees Alfred with a wife and baby, it kills him—he begrudges Alfred for having everything that he’s lost, everything he’ll never have. Near the end of the film, he actually adopts Alfred’s daughter. It’s meant to be one more insult for Alfred, of course, but it also gives Robert a portion of the future he lost. Unlike Leonard, he has something new to live for.
It’s the first appearance of children in these widowers’ lives, and it’s an important introduction that will get more and more prominent.

[jo]

The Prestige is cited as one of the greatest faceoffs in films --

filmschoolrejects.com/ten-greatest-face-offs-movie-history/

[jo]

The Prestige is cited as one of the greatest faceoffs in films --

filmschoolrejects.com/ten-greatest-face-offs-movie-history/

Alfred Borden and Robert Angier, The Prestige

What begins as your standard workplace rivalry between two entry-level magicians both looking to score Michael Caine as a mentor quickly evolves into something else entirely after Angier’s (Hugh Jackman) wife Julia dies in a magic trick gone wrong that may or may not be Borden’s (Christian Bale) fault. As the rivals grow more and more consumed with not just one-upping each other’s successes, but actively sabotaging each other’s acts, the film turns into a mind-bending barrage of twists and turns. David Bowie and Gollum even get involved. The fact that the film was released in 2006 when Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale were more or less Marvel and DC’s cinematic MVPs just adds one more delightful layer to a film already deliciously full of them.

And --

If you get to the end and realize you didn’t see your favorite, that’s probably because I, regrettably, have not seen every film ever made.

How could you miss the rivalry between Valjean and Javert -- they even sang about their conflict in THE CONFRONTATION ?


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

Thanks to JackmansLanding for the link ... although I haven't had a chance to listen to the podcast...some comparisons with the book and other comments on the film itself :

brooklynfitchick.com/2018/03/book-vs-movie-the-prestige/

I did read the book before the movie was released, so this is something that I find very intersting. Quite a startling and eerie literary material -- I am glad the Nolans modified it somewhat.

Jo

[jo]

Devin Faraci once wrote that Christian Bale is a one-note actor *giggle*

[njr]

Jo, I can’t get any of the videos you are posting lately to play. Can you please maybe just post them as a link?

Nancy

[jo]

Sorry, but I am actually posting the link only but Twitter converts them into the actual tweets.

I will try to repost on Chrome as well when I can.


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

footeandfriendsonfilm.com/2019/03/04/10-tidbits-about-movie-accents/?fbclid=IwAR2nqftIATLd3I-nnuH_AlwTE2_6uwpj1kWZUhYBi9dM3vWPln4AywXJxfw

By Nick Maylor
If you’re an actor from England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand, you probably learned to master an American accent on day one. Many famous actors from these places appear in movies all the time, rarely using their natural speaking voice. Changing dialects in films is a constant happening for actors and actresses. Sometimes, practically no one in a film’s cast aren’t putting one on (more on that later). I won’t be highlighting examples of bad acting due to lack of ability here as that is a subject for its own article. However, I will simply say that Keanu Reeves in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) warrants a “Nuff said” for now.

It also should be noted that when it comes to adopting accents for film, Meryl Streep is the all-time champion of nailing it every time. However, such a thing should go without saying.

There’s a lot to be said on the subject of movie dialects and the whole study of phonetics and language, but for now I’ve decided to highlight some interesting tidbits about movies, actors and all things film that revolve around accents.

Enjoy.

7. The Prestige

For those unfamiliar with Christopher Nolan’s period drama about stage magicians, the premise of the film is based around the three parts to a magic trick; the pledge, the turn, and the prestige. Without getting into heavy spoiler territory, the entire film plays out as one giant magic trick, with fundamental revelations about the entire spectacle only revealed in the final moments. While Christian Bale does a slightly exaggerated version of his own London/Cockney accent, Hugh Jackman plays Robert Angier, an American. Throughout the film, Jackman speaks in an American accent (as he does in many films) but towards the end after some of those earth-shattering revelations take place, his true identity becomes clearer and during his final scenes with Bale, he speaks in an RP (received pronunciation) English accent. With so much going on with all of the twists and turns, its easy to miss. It does, however, add one more layer of trickery that satisfies upon multiple viewings (something the film requires to fully appreciate). It should be noted that Christopher Nolan co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Jonathan Nolan. Both brothers were raised jointly in England and America and both speak with a muddled mix of the two accents. However, Christopher Nolan (the elder brother) has a distinctly more British accent when speaking whereas Jonathan Nolan’s accent is much closer to a neutral American one.

If you have the read the book (not sure if it was said directly in the movie), it is established that the true identity of the character that Hugh plays is that of an English nobility, Lord Caldlow. He took on the persona of Robert Angier ( also English, not American, in the book) because he did not want to embarrass his family about his desired calling of being a magician. It had nothing to do with the additional layer of trickery suggested by the author of this article.


Jo

[njr]

I rewatched this movie yesterday for the first time since probably 2007 and really enjoyed it. The first time I saw it I was so confused! Going into it now, knowing who “Fallon” was and that Lord Caldow (sp?) was Robert Angier “all along” made everything fall into place. The brother who loved Sarah and was Jess’s dad was the one who survived. Yeay! It was great seeing the wonderful David Bowie again too.

Nancy

[jo]

Here's what the book author Christopher Priest thought of THE PRESTIGE, the film.

christopher-priest.co.uk/books/the-prestige/the-prestige-film

The Prestige (film)

CP is often asked what he thinks of the film of The Prestige. In 2008 he published a full-length book called The Magic, to answer that question. But since not everyone is expected to buy the book in pursuit of a fleeting interest, here is a short note written as a summary. (Even so, The Magic may be purchased from this website: click here to find out more.)

CP on Christopher Nolan’s film of The Prestige:


I like and admire the following –

The seriousness of approach, the lack of levity, the quality of the direction.

The indirect, multi-level narrative.

The fact that there were no car chases, no songs, no sex scenes, no guns used to resolve issues (with one small exception). There was also no gratuitous violence, and CGI was kept to a minimum.

The photography was beautiful, and at times artful.

The sense of period was good.

The performance of Ching Ling Foo’s signature illusion was mounted well, and Hugh Jackman’s attempt at reproducing it moments later was convincing.

Christian Bale acted with conviction; Scarlett Johannson was not given enough to do, but looked lovely and made the best of a difficult part; Andy Serkis and Rebecca Hall also did well with under-written parts; Hugh Jackman was OK; Michael Caine acted well.

I also like the fact that every time I have seen the film in a cinema the audience has sat attentively to follow the complicated narrative, and that as they leave the cinema the people are always talking about what they have just seen. (They are obviously engaged by the film, but also sometimes pleasantly mystified by it.)



I am much less impressed by –

The ending. In the novel the central mystery about Borden is not concealed from the reader. Most readers of the book work things out for themselves once it becomes apparent that there is a mystery. Christopher Nolan did not grasp this subtlety. In his film he tried to hide the mystery, then weakly presented the revelation of it as a “twist” ending.

The lack of a modern story to set the historical context of the feud between Angier and Borden.

The sound level. Nolan encouraged his actors to whisper many of their exchanges. This was particularly so in the final scene, when Bale and Jackman were explaining the twist ending to each other.

The wooden performance of David Bowie. The role of Nicolai Tesla is one of the most important in the story, and should have presented a decent actor with a meaty part. Bowie was merely adequate in the part.

The reversal of motives in the scene in which Jackman pleaded with Johannson to spy on Bale. In the novel, the suggestion comes from the woman, which in context of the story, not to mention the period, makes much more psychological sense.

The music. One of Christopher Nolan’s strengths is not his taste in music.

The pop song played over the final credits, which was completely out of key with the rest of the film. Another big hint that Nolan has a tin ear for music.


Overall –

I liked what I liked much more than I disliked what I disliked, and found many scenes admirable. The opening is particularly effective, as is the presentation of some of the magic. There is sensitivity and skill throughout, but not flashy, show-off skill, as has been apparent in some of Nolan’s more recent films.

As is described in The Magic I had the unusual opportunity to select the director of the film, and chose Nolan because I sensed he was a young man with a vivid and unusual cinematic imagination. I believe he amply displayed that talent in his early film Memento, and also in The Prestige. I have found his other films disappointing. Insomnia was a routine Hollywood thriller, which could have been directed by anybody; the Batman films, although technically brilliant, were risible, poorly written and likely to date badly; while Inception (again a technical achievement) was cinematically derivative and excruciatingly scripted.

I therefore believe The Prestige is the best of Christopher Nolan’s films to date, and if anyone suggests that I would think that, wouldn’t I?, they should read The Magic to see the exegesis of the whole argument.

[mamaleh]

So Priest thought Bale acted "with conviction" but HJ was merely "OK"? Not even a word about HJ's beautifully delivered dying monologue, even if he didn't like the general ending of Nolan's film? And Bowie was "wooden"? Disappointing analysis.

Ellen