The Victorian-Era Mystery Thriller The Prestige - Movie Review Example

Film Noir in The Prestige Obsession. It is defined by the Random House Unabridged Dictionary (2006) as “the domination of one’s thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc; the idea, image, desire, feeling, etc. itself; the state of being obsessed; and the act of obsessing.” This is the key theme of Christopher Nolan’s 2006 film The Prestige. The framework of the film is the reading of a dead man’s diary by the man who is sentenced to hang for the murder. This one line description is dark enough on its own, but the story becomes more complicated because of the fact that both men are magicians, each having waged their own form of war against each other for years. The source of their battle is an accident that occurred earlier in their lives, when Angier’s wife was killed in a dangerous magic trick as a result of the type of knot that Borden tied. As they each attempt to hide their own secrets, they each also become obsessed with the activities and thinking of the other. The nature of their business introduces a basic level of deceit as this is the magician’s job. However, there are multiple levels of deceit included in the story as each magician attempts to deceive the other or to deceive the world. Through the careful application of film noir techniques, Director Christopher Nolan is able to expose and extend these major themes of the Victorian-era mystery thriller The Prestige written in 1995 by Christopher Priestley. Film noir basically means ‘black’ film in the sense that the images, music, subject matter and filming style are all coordinated to produce a dark, brooding emotional reaction. They are characterized by dark rooms and filtered light, crowded back alley city scenes and neutral or no color pattern. “Film noir, occasionally acerbic, usually cynical and often enthralling, gave us characters trying to elude some mysterious past that continues to haunt them, hunting them down with a fatalism that taunts and teases before delivering the final, definitive blow” (“Film Noir”, 2004). The film form was first developed in the 1940s and is not often filmed in its strictest form today, few are filmed in strictly black and white for example. Despite this, there are many common elements of film noir that are used in films today. Protagonists in film noir are usually illustrated as “morally ambiguous low-lifes from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they were cynical, tarnished and insecure loners (usually men), struggling to survive – and in the end, ultimately losing” (Dirks, 2007). This description fits both Angier and Bolden as they are revealed through the film. Angier has fled from his past as a means of protecting his family, suggesting that his entrance into the world of magic represents for his family an entrance into the ‘dark and gloomy underworld.’ Borden, on the other hand, is highly mysterious about not only his past, but his present as well, keeping major secrets even from his wife as a means of protecting his greatest secret. Both can easily be considered ‘cynical, tarnished and insecure’ in their own ways and to different degrees. Storylines depicted in these films were never very straight-forward. “Narratives were frequently complex, maze-like and convoluted, and typically told with foreboding background music, flashbacks, … and/or reflective and confessional, first-person voice-over narration” (Dirks, 2007). Again, The Prestige matches the description. The storyline, as mentioned, is essentially the retelling of what Borden reads in Angier’s diary as he awaits his own execution for Angier’s murder. While this may seem relatively straight-forward, the story becomes complicated as part of Angier’s diary relates what he read in Borden’s diary and the timeline hops back and forth as first Angier and then Borden reformulate their understanding of events as further information is learned. With these similarities to film noir established, it should be easy to trace how this technique helps to illuminate the film’s major themes of obsession and the levels of deceit. Near the beginning of the film, as has been mentioned, Angier’s wife is killed as a result of Borden’s actions. However, when Borden is asked what type of knot he tied, he is puzzlingly unable to answer. “From that point on, each man is single-mindedly motivated to outdo, upend, and destroy the other – to the bitter end” (Levy, 2007). As Angier attempts to enact his revenge upon Borden for the loss of his wife and Borden attempts to avenge the loss of two of his fingers (and two fingers on his secret identical twin’s hand), the professional competition between the men heats up, often seeing them performing across the street from each other and attempting to duplicate the other’s tricks. The filtered light of outdoor scenes in the polluted air of London or the semi-opaque fog among the trees of Colorado help to establish the idea that the audience is only getting a suggestion of the events that are unfolding throughout. As each character attempts to be the premiere magician in London, they can think of nothing but discovering what the other man is thinking, how to get inside his head and how to upstage his shows. Again, an issue that becomes more difficult with the shadowed scenes of film noir as the corners of the rooms disappear and only fragments of constructions can be discerned. This obsession goes so far that both men prove incapable of properly caring for the women in their lives, introducing the concept of the femme fatale that is another element of the genre. Angier proves incapable of recognizing the love offered him by Olivia, his stage assistant while Borden is only capable of loving his wife approximately every other day, loving Olivia the other half of the time. Both men can also be seen to carry their obsession beyond human bounds as they pursue their magic, introducing several levels of deceit as they progress. Angier goes to incredible lengths to assure himself that he is the greater magician, defying the bounds of known science in his employment of Tesla to build him a machine that not only places him in an alternate location, but at the same time creates a duplicate of himself. This brings up the question of magic as opposed to science, illustrating the difficulty many faced in attempting to discover what was real and what make-believe. Although the machine really does work to make him appear somewhere else, his entire philosophy as it is exposed to Borden at the end, is to see the look of hopeful wonder on the faces of his audience as their cynicism and knowledge is suspended for a moment. This is a concept again emphasized by the incomplete information the audience gains of the events as they occur. However, in his pursuit of the ultimate magic, Angier has gone so far as to make it necessary for him to kill a duplicate copy of himself every night after performing his trick. This is, ultimately, the reason for the tank under the stage in which a copy of Angier drowns each night introducing yet another deception. His final show turns out to be a brilliant frame job on Borden, who is indeed executed for his murder while one version of Angier remains alive and hidden in the wings, to be ‘re-incarnated’ as a wealthy noble. Meanwhile, his practice space, as it is revealed when Borden walks back through it, is full of water tanks with drowned men floating inside. Borden, also dedicated to a life of illusion, perhaps takes his dedication to magic a step further, although this is one of the debatable points of the film. As it is revealed in the end, Borden’s biggest secret is not some form of internal superior magical quality but is instead the existence of an identical twin who no one else knows about but himself. Film noir helps to keep this fact hidden throughout almost the entire film, with only occasional hints of Borden’s relationship to his technician, Fallon. This occurs as Fallon is able to keep to the shadows much of the time, hiding his face behind a low hat and a face full of whiskers. This secret is kept as a means of producing an exact double in the translocation trick, a plan that emerges as having been a part of a long-term plan. That someone would have the strength and the ability to carry out a life of complete deception is illustrated through the character of the Chinese magician Chung Ling Soo. Angier demonstrates how the frail old man is really just an act hiding a highly muscular frame, but it is Borden who immediately understands where the true illusion is. The techniques of film noir play an essential role in bringing out these themes thanks to its inherent ability to maintain a sense of incomplete knowledge even as the audience is given an impression that they are seeing it all. The role of deceit in the film is complicated by the deceit of the filmmaker in presenting the story while the development of an obsession is illustrated through the filmic techniques associated with it. As Tesla puts it, he started off innocently enough and his obsession brought him a great deal of success, but he went too far with it; now it owns him and someday it will destroy him. This is a sentiment completely in keeping with the most common elements of film noir that becomes graphically demonstrated through the proceedings of the film. Works Cited Dirks, Tim. “Film Noir.” Film Site. 2007. December 11, 2007 “Film Noir: An Introduction.” 10 Shades of Noir. In Focus. February 24, 2004. December 11, 2007 Levy, Emanuel. “The Prestige.” Film Reviews. 2007. December 11, 2007 “Obsession.” Random House Unabridged Dictionary. New York: Random House, 2006. December 11, 2007 The Prestige. Dir. Christopher Nolan, Perf. Michael Caine, Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson. Touchstone Pictures, 2006. Read More