see comments, boards, and especially the FAQ
aired on FX last nite. really rather fine. int frame-telling, moving from trial to earlier, and the two journals, mostly following Jackman as Angier ~ but sometimes from Bordens point of view? and fine actors. and the story: the two men, their similarities and differences* ~ doubles ~ magic ~ have to live your act (the old 'china man' who has pretended all his life to be a cripple) ~ the man who does not tell his wife he is not one man.
The Prestige - tvguide: Memento director Christopher Nolan's dark, dazzling head-trip of a movie, adapted from Christopher Priest’s 1995 novel, revolves around two turn-of-the-century magicians trapped in a lifelong game of increasingly dangerous one-upmanship. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Michael Caine star.
it's a book! great. that's what I want, to read it. although maybe the screenplay too. I'm int in the telling. and I have qstns re the story...
az - The Prestige (2006 film) - starring Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Piper Perabo, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, David Bowie
427 customer reviews)
az- The Prestige -by Christopher Priest |Books
Priest writes of a pair of rival magicians in turn-of-the-century London. Each has a winning trick the other craves, but so arcane is the nature of these tricks, so incredibly difficult are they to perform, that they take on a peculiar life of their own?in one case involving a mysterious apparent double identity, in the other a reliance on the ferocious powers unleashed in the early experimental years of electricity.
(92 customer reviews)
az- The Prestige - Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan (Author), Christopher Nolan (Author)
key phrases: machine sputters, abandoned theatre, beneath the stage, Great Danton, Transported Man, Lord Caldlow ...
In late nineteenth-century England, two stage illusionists are drawn into a match of wits, each desiring to annihilate the reputation of the other. Upper-class Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) enjoys worldwide fame, while cockney Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) is his most ardent rival. Their antagonism is also a mutual fascination, but the competition between them leads to evermore dangerous acts of conjuring. When Angier raises the stakes by consulting scientist Nikola Tesla (David Bowie), the potential for a deadly reckoning draws near.
1 cust rvw: One of the best scripts I have read. A page turner with great visuals. Captivating from page one. One can only hope it transfers to the screen with the same brilliance.
The Prestige - Wkp:
Synopsis:
... Borden develops an act called The Transported Man, and an improved version named The New Transported Man, which appears to move him from one closed cabinet to another in the blink of an eye to catch the bouncing rubberball he released before stepping into the one cabinet (and in Angier's first performance, his top hat) and without appearing to pass through the intervening space.
2006 film adaptation:
The complex journal-within-a-journal structure of the novel was consciously translated to the screen as a non-linear, flashback narrative set as three acts to mirror the three acts of a magic trick.[3][4][5] wow I was impressed with the structure without even yet having noticed organized in three acts. So: we have a frame: beginning & ending at same point, with Cutter showing magic to Borden's daughter. and flashbacks, and journal within journal. *and* a three act structure of Pledge, Turn, Prestige? what in the movie constitutes The Turn? Angier's apparent drowning in the tank I suppose. and then we have his prestige, but the real prestige is Borden's ~ The film is thematically faithful to the novel, many plot and structural changes were made, most notably the removal of a subplot involving Spiritualism and the replacement of the novel's modern-day frame story [The frame story involves the great-grandchildren of Borden and Angier and their investigations into how their own lives have been affected by their ancestors' conflict. The events of the past are revealed primarily through each of the magicians' diaries] with Borden's wait for the gallows. good choice, d n need modern day grandchildren coming into this telling.
Also the effect of Tesla's device is changed: the body left behind does not die so in the book it dies? ~seems from elsewh that in the book is not a full 'clone' but a ghostly remnant (sth left behind when Angier is transported. so the device in the books is a transporter & not also a duplicator.), so it has to be killed every night by plunging it into a water-tank below the stage..[2] ooh well that is perhaps the most intriguing part (esp alongside Borden-Fallon two live as one): the thought of killing oneself-as-other and as dying having been killed by oneself-as-other. it's not you, at this moment, you are only the one. but the other in every way is you until this moment when became two. and yet the you that kills does not feel the death of the you that dies. the self-other distinction is no less absolute, although *this* other has the distinction of being yourself. ***
- ^ Shewman, Den (Sept/October 2006). "Nothing Up Their Sleeves: Christopher & Jonathan Nolan on the Art of Magic, Murder, and The Prestige". Creative Screenwriting Vol. 13:5. this links only to the index page http://www.creativescreenwriting.com/index.html. and no success so far in brief attempt via ggl to find any live or cached webpage of the article.maybe Creative Screenwriting avail only by subscrp
- ^ Levy, Emanuel (2007-02-20). "Interview (with Christopher Nolan)". EmanuelLevy.com. http://www.emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=3520. Retrieved on 2007-02-26.
- ^ Murray, Rebecca. "Behind the Scenes of "The Prestige" with Writer/Director Christopher Nolan". About, Inc.. http://movies.about.com/od/theprestige/a/prestigcn101606.htm. Retrieved on 2007-02-26.
- ^ Gilchrist, Todd (2007-02-20). "The Pledge, The Turn, The Prestige, The DVD". IGN. http://dvd.ign.com/articles/766/766063p1.html. Retrieved on 2007-02-26.
my notes, upon starting to watch film from the beginning...
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The movie begins (and ends) with Cutter who is performing a trick for Borden's daughter, explaining that
Every magic trick has three parts or acts:
The Pledge: the magician shows you sth ordinary. a deck of cards, a bird, or a man. perhaps he asks you to inspect it, to see that it is indeed real, ordinary. but of course it probably isn't.
The Turn: the magician takes the ordinary thing & makes it do something extraordinary. you're looking for the secret. but you wouldn't clap yet. it's not enough to make sth disappear.
The Prestige: you have to bring it back.
And during Michael Caine's voiceover of this explanation, we see shots of Angier performing Pledge and The Turn of his last show's last trick The Real Transported Man, and Borden from the audience getting past someone "I'm part of the act, you fool!" to go backstage (under the stage) and seeing Angier drowning in the tank.
-----why does Angier have blind stagehands? Cutter compliments him on the tactic, so I suppose it is so that one's stagehands will not see the secrets. but what are they there to do, at all? (they do not prevent Borden's access.) I suppose they help with transport of each tank (containing a dead man) after each show.
Cutter at Borden's trial agrees to disclose the mechanism of The Real Transported Man to the judge in private.
-----but does he know how Angier did it? does he know that Tesla's machine creates a clone, who then dies by drowning in the tank under the stage? eventually he does know, since we see him tell Angier turned Lord Caldlow to consider his accomplishment, meaning all the deaths of his clones. but if he knows at the trial, then he is lying when he says that the tank was only for the first trick and not this final trick, the transported man. and that Borden must have moved the tank under the stage, thus murdering Angier by causing him to drown. no, he must not know. which is why when he faces Lord Caldlow he is angry that he himself was caused to be part of the conviction and hanging of Borden, taking this father from the little girl. so, at the trial, what would he have to tell the judge? does he think that the Tesla machine simply transports Angier, without creating a clone (who then drowns under the stage)?
toward the end Cutter tells Lord Caldlow that, when Angier's wife died by drowning, and Cutter then told him of the sailor who nearly drowned but after five minutes coughed, and recounted that those drowning minutes felt "like going home", Cutter was lying; really the sailor had said it was agony. ***
Solicitor at the prison visits Borden and gives him Angier's journal, in which he writes of deciphering Borden's own journal and travelling to see Tesla in Colorado.
~----does this solicitor have any import? I suppose not, just contributes to the mystique in the story by his solemn appearance, and, to me, resemblance to Angier.
-----Borden gave Angier the word "tesla" as the key to his journal as well as the secret to his trick, but at the end of the journal, which Angier reads after journeying to America to find Tesla in Colorado, Borden writes that the word is only the key and not the secret; and that Olivia gave Borden's journal to Angier only at Borden's request, proving her loyalty now lies with Borden, and helping to cause Angier to leave England). so: how is it that in fact Tesla the scientist does turn out to be capable of building the transported man machine for Angier? ~surely not just a coincidence that Borden's word 'tesla' did indeed lead to the means for Angier to perform the trick? this is satisfyingly answered at imdb faq & boards. next (above) post.
*the two men, their similarities and differences.
Angier's last words, dying: "You never understood, did you? Why we did this? The audience knows the truth: That the world is simple. Miserable. Solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, you could make them wonder. Then you got to see something very special...You really don't know?"
hmm. not sure that in the film I saw this, Angier as looking for, wanting, seeing the need for this wonder. and as over against Borden not. as if Angier is the one who loves magic truly.
earlier, when Angier as Lord Caldlow presents himself to Borden in prison, he says ~"We both knew you were always the better magician." then, tearing up the paper Borden has offered him in desperation, "But whatever your secret is, you have to agree: mine is better."
so am I to see Borden as the better magician but Angier as the one who loves magic? ~ ~ ~
and also, when Borden first performs his transported man with two cupboards, Angier and Cutter agree that it lacks showmanship, polish, and that Angier can give it that.
~maybe this last speech of Angier's just does not fit with the movie. maybe came from the book?
this descrip fr wkp re the film bears out Borden as the workman magician and Angier as the aristocrat performer. ~but no, not especially the last speech's suggestion of Angier as the lover of making the audience wonder.:
The Prestige (film) - Wkp # Cast & Characters:
Hugh Jackman as Robert Angier, an aristocratic magician with a talent for performance. After reading the script, Jackman expressed interest in playing the part of Robert Angier. Christopher Nolan discovered Jackman was interested in the script, and after meeting with him, saw that Jackman possessed the qualities of stage showmanship that Nolan was looking for in the role of Angier. Nolan explained that Angier had 'a wonderful understanding of the interaction between a performer and a live audience', a quality he believed that Jackman had. Nolan said that '[Jackman] has the great depth as an actor that hasn't really been explored. People haven't had the chance to really see what he can do as an actor, and this is a character that would let him do that." Jackman based his portrayal of Angier on 1950s-era American magician Channing Pollock.
Christian Bale as Alfred Borden, a working-class magician with an understanding of magic. Christian Bale expressed interest in playing the part of Alfred Borden, and was cast after Jackman. Although Nolan had previously cast Bale as Batman in Batman Begins, he did not consider Bale for the part of Borden until Bale contacted him about the script. Nolan said that Bale was 'exactly right' for the part of Borden, and that it was 'unthinkable' for anyone else to play the part.
Michael Caine as John Cutter, the stage engineer who works for Angier. Caine had previously collaborated with Nolan and Bale in Batman Begins, where he played Alfred Pennyworth, the Wayne family butler. Nolan said that even though it felt like the character of Cutter was written for Caine, it was not: the character "was written before I'd ever met him." Caine describes Cutter as "a teacher, a father and a guide to Angier." Caine, in trying to create Cutter's nuanced portrait, altered his voice and posture. Nolan later said that "Michael Caine’s character really becomes something of the heart of the movie. He has a wonderful warmth and emotion to him that draws you into the story and allows you to have a point of view on these characters without judging them too harshly."
and... Piper Perabo as Julia McCullough, Angier's wife. whom I found her ~appealling in Coyote Ugly, if not entirely impressed w her there, and then somewhat appealling in appearance as guest star on House. I liked her here. certainly much more than Scarlett Johansson as Olivia Wenscombe, Angier's assistant & lover and then Borden's. the ~only element of the film I dislike. she was likeable in LostInTranslation but in nothing after that? just evokes in me the feeling that I am ~tired of seeing her. Rebecca Hall as Sarah Borden, Borden's wife. Hall had to relocate from North London to Los Angeles in order to shoot the film, though ironically, the film itself takes place in North London. Hall said that she "was starstruck just to be involved in [the film]." never seen her before, don't think. she was quite good here. yes watching again I am impressed, she has some of the very compelling scenes, with the change of reaction to your husband's 'I love you' from "Not today. Today maybe you love magic more than me. It's okay. I liek being able to tell. makes it more special when you do mean it." to "You mean it today. which just makes it so much harder when you don't."
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***the drowning man No one cares about the man under the stage
Angiers, complaining about being under the stage while Root gets The Prestige ooh gets the prestige:
"No one cares about the man who disappears, who goes into the box; they only care about the one who comes out the other side."
ooh nice Angiers himself becomes the one who is not caring about himself his other self his now-other-non-self his duplicate drowning under the stage. he only cares about the one *who he is* who finds himself & appears to the audience, transported to the balcony.
IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: something that never makes sense to me ...:
He is kicking and punching the tank like he's trying to get out, if you don't believe me go to the scene.
mad_weather Wed Feb 4 2009 21:39:40:
Of course, he was kicking. He was dying a highly painful death, that's enough of a reason for trying to get out. One thing is planning the act that involved death AND survival at the same time, and it's somewhat another when you're alone in a tank full of water and there's absolutely no {other} perspective for this "you".
--Also, how would the {transported} Angier double know not to appear up on the balcony?good qstn
He could A) see him through disguise when Borden was inspecting the machine on the stage ah.good answer. even better if in the film we see sth suggests that he recognized Borden on stage, and B) hear his yells from below while standing on the balcony getting ready to step forth.
--How could he have been so sure that Bordin was going to show up?
There are various opinions about that. I tend to think that he simply wasn't, and framing Borden actually wasn't Angier's plan from the beginning, he just grabbed an opportunity when it presented itself. the end of Angier's journal, delivered to Bordin in prison by Lord Caldlow's solicitor, says: 'But here at the turn I must leave you [turn of the Real Transported Man trick & the movie: Angier's disappearance by death in the drowning tank] Borden, sitting there in your cell, reading my diary, awaiting your death for my murder' so either he planned it, wh I agree in tending not to think. or he wrote that part of his journal after resuming his life as Lord Caldlow. which he certainly could have, right? so I'm going with that. ..yes, further responses say the same:
-Borden isn't given the Diary until he is in jail. It is given to him by the solicitor Owens (Roger Rees) while he is incarcerated. Angier could write the diary (or at least add pages & possibly rip a few unfitting pages) *after* Borden was jailed. right. it's spooky for Borden who believes Angiers is dead, hence must have written it before the drowning, hence seems to have know about Borden's incarceration ahead of time. but since Angiers in fact was still alive as Lord Caldlow, who sent the journal, he need not have planned ahead of time to frame Borden.
--He said to Cutter "the sort of show Borden can't ignore."
Which doesn't prove he was framing him, only that he wanted Borden to know that he did a hands-down better trick and be properly humiliated.
--I don't understand why there would be "absolutely no perspective", he knew what was going to happen and accepted it every time he stepped into the machine.
When he was stepping into the machine, he still was the one person, who had death AND survival ahead of him. That thought would console him enough to do it. After the split, he was the one that had no chance to survive anymore, AND that just discovered that drowning is not nearly like "going home", but agony.
-listen to mad weather. everything mad weather said is absolutely correct.
Wolvaine Fri Feb 6 2009 17:25:51:
When Angier stepped into the machine, it made a clone of him on the balcony. So every night he was the man on the balcony AND the man in the tank. well the man who stepped into the machine was both men. after the trick, each man is a continuation of that one man, having a continuous extension to all the same experiences. but *now* the two men are two separate men, having two separate continued experiences.
Every night, the Angier who fell into the tank would think 'S***! I'm dyin! The real me is dying!' and every night, the man on the balcony would think 'Result! The real me is stood up here whilst some poor clone is drowning underneath the stage.' Basically, each Angier that survived thought HE was the REAL one, when in fact, they were ALL Robert Angier (just as all the hats were his). Tesla: don't forget your hat. Angiers: which one is mine? Tesla: they're all yours, Mr. Angier.
-Wolvaine has nailed it exactly!
y. but~and then there's four more pages to this thread...
Spliff_The_Cimmerian Wed Mar 11 2009 14:53:56 in this thread & also on IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: Who's side were you on? p7 (of 11) re Angier's response to Olivia saying that discovering how Borden does the transported man trick "won't bring your wife back."
"I don't care about my wife. I care about his secret!"
I think Angier starts despising himself at that moment. Watch the series of looks that pass across his face after he says it. That's yet another reason why he chooses to drown one of himself in each performance of the Real Transported Man. He wants to share Julia's fate and punish himself for allowing his obsession to drive out his grief.
He wants to drown himself, to share her fate: Remember when he tries to hold his face in the sink basin? ah good observation.
He also wants to prove -to Borden? to himself?- that he can "get his hands dirty" for the sake of a great trick. yes that's another good scene. Borden in prison: "You're not afraid to get your hands dirty, anymore, are you?" Lord Caldlow: "No. Not anymore."
typing that it occurs to me, don't they have a similar exchange at the burial meeting? if so, does suggest that I am wrong (see above post) to think that the Borden doing the talking there, like at the prison, is the brash twin, while his quieter ingenuier is buried. ..yes at that meeting, the unburied Borden says "I'm impressed. You finally got your hands dirty."
........................................
IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: Why keep the clones???:
Mentrilo 2 hours ago Fri Mar 20 2009 14:59:35
Probably a collection of reasons:
-Ease. like the other poster says, Angier would have to destroy the bodies himself every night, if Borden follows him to discover the secrets of the trick, it ruins everything. Protecting the trick limits the ways in which he can dispose of the bodies.
-Sentiment. Angier doesn't know if the machine is a teleport that leaves an echo, or a long-distance cloning machine, he doesn't know if he is the original, a clone of the original, a clone of a clone of a clone of a clone of a clone. Every one of those bodies is a part of him. ~no. every one is a him that he stopped being, who became at that moment Other to him, and whom he caused to die.
-Guilt. Every night he creates an Angier then drowns him. Keeping the bodies ensures he is reminded of his sacrifice.
IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: New (?) Theory:
Mentrilo 4 hours ago (Sat Mar 21 2009 07:05:34)
There's an air bubble in the tank of the drowned Angier when after Borden walks out.
What if he used the machine one last time, so that he could fool Borden into thinking he won. The final two copies of Angier are one in the tank, pretending to be just one of the many corpses, and the other beavering around in the theatre waiting for Borden to come shoot him.
I realise this would need the two copies of Angier to decide between them which has to float in the tank waiting for Borden to leave, and which gets to be shot by Borden that's funny intentional I think "gets to" be shot versus "has to" float in the tank.
just watched the end. the final shot of an Angier in the tank, as the closing credits song begins. I do not see the bubble. so, no, do not think there was any suggestion that any Angier is still living. ~but check back on this imdb board page to see if any eventual responses..
IMDb :: Boards :: The Prestige (2006) :: What does Borden say... right before he's hanged?
He said abracadabra.
[also note the intitials of the two magicians Alfred Borden Robert Angiers = ABRA. I suppose this is from the book].
I just saw this movie for the first time tonight & was very impressed. I knew that I would enjoy it bcs heard good things about it how is it I'd hrd nothing about it? but I did not expect it to be one of the best movies I've ever seen./y. I think it is one of the best movies I've seen. watching it a ~2nd time (first time in full, straight thr) I kept thinking, This is fantastic.
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