Parallel Prestiges

1802 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: literary time periods

In 1995 author Christopher Priest combined the themes of fantasy, history, science fiction and mystery to create his novel The Prestige. This World Fantasy Award winning novel explores jealousy and envy as it tells the story of “Two magicians, of wholly different characters, that have fallen into a feud, each trying to outdo the other on stage and in their personal lives” (Ottinger). With such a mysterious and intricate plot, a reader may be torn between watching the movie adaptation or leaving the original plot of the novel preserved in his mind. While the novel uses dated journal entries to unravel the tale and set the scene (Foley), the movie uses flashbacks to show glimpses of the magicians’ secretive lives. Director Christopher Nolan focused on period details and carefully crafted scenes of historical value to stick with the setting of the book, which was the 19th century, while Priest wrote descriptive narratives that allow a reader to immerse himself in the characters’ world. Nolan worked with dedicated cast and crewmembers to maintain the sophistication and the mysterious nature of Priest’s novel.

The dedicated cast and crewmembers of this film worked to be historically accurate not just mentally with their speech and mannerisms, but also physically. The two primary characters of this film are dressed in traditional garb of the time period like top hats, tailored suits and pointed collars. “At the center are two ambitious young magicians, Rupert ‘Robbie’ Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden (Christian Bale)” (Foley). Bale portrays Borden as a natural magician who practices regularly and is envious and spiteful of his rival, because the two men share such a bitter history. On the other hand, Jackman acts soph...

... middle of paper ...

...has been cut out, but Nolan made sure to keep the plot honest and to only cut out parts that would not disrupt the main idea of the film.

Works Cited

Burr, Ty. “It’s magician vs. magician in ‘Prestige’.” 2006. The Boston Globe. Web. 6 January

2010.

Foley, Scott William. “The Prestige by Christopher Priest – A Book Review.” The Times.

2008. Web. 12 January 2010.

Ottinger III, John. “Book Review: The Prestige by Christopher Priest.” 2008. Science Fiction

And Fantasy Book News & Reviews. Web. 20 January 2010.

Phillips, Michael. “Movie Review: ‘The Prestige’.” 2007. Tribune Movie Critique. Web. 15

January 2010.

The Prestige. Touchstone Pictures, 2006. DVD.

Priest, Christopher. The Prestige. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1995. Print.

Wu, Steven. “The Prestige.” 2005. Steven Wu’s Book Reviews. Web. 12 January 2010.

Show More
Related

  • Jekyll And Hyde Compare And Contrast Essay

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    Both the novel and the movie take place during the Victorian Era. A time when society’s expectations were high. The way a person was perceived by another, and a person’s reputation was very important. A Victorian gentlemen did anything possible to maintain a good reputation. Honor was something worth fighting, killing, and dying for.

    Read More

  • Comparing Reality In King Lear And The Wars

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    The appearance of a character is not always a good reflection of one’s true personality. In The Wars, Robert attempts to change how he appears to people; he tries to become what he believes a soldier should be. When Robert kills the horse on the ship, he is traumatized; he “began to squeeze the trigger and he squeezed again and again and again” (Findley 68) which indicates he is going insane, having to do an act he did not want to commit in the first place. Robert tries to act like nothing from the shooting has affected him; he exceeds his emotions and acts exactly like an officer by saying “if this damn ship would sell us one I’d buy us both a drink” (Findley 69), by changing the subject, Robert indicates that he is not affected nor cares about the killing of the horse, even though internally, he is. Likewise in King Lear, Goneril and Regan both intentionally appear to be something they are not. When Lear

    Read More

  • The Maltese Falcon: Book Vs. Movie

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    Many time in our lives, we have seen the transformation of novels into movies. Some of them are equal to the novel, few are superior, and most are inferior. Why is this? Why is it that a story that was surely to be one of the best written stories ever, could turn out to be Hollywood flops? One reason is that in many transformations, the main characters are changed, some the way they look, others the way they act. On top of this, scenes are cut out and plot is even changed. In this essay, I will discuss some of the changes made to the characters of the Maltese Falcon as they make their transformation to the ?big screen.?

    Read More

  • the decline of witchcraft prosecution in the 17th-18th centuries

    1661 Words  | 4 Pages

    Edward, Bever, 'Witchcraft Prosecutions and the Decline of Magic', Journal of Interdisciplinary History vol.11 no.2 (Autumn 2009)

    Read More

  • Mise A Scene In The Royal Tenenbaums

    797 Words  | 2 Pages

    For this assignment I have chosen to analyze a scene from the 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by West Anderson, where Richie Tenembaum, portrayed by Luke Wilson, attempts to commit suicide. This scene provides a shift from the previously established editing style of the film, its mood, pace, and camera movement as the filmmaker presents the climax in this one character’s story. This is done through the use of a specific mise en scène and an editing style which conveys the emotion behind the character’s actions.

    Read More

  • BBC's Shakespeare Retold: Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Brian Percival

    761 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...o the social norms, misogynist ideas and many other aspects of the Elizabethan society. It has also been altered to cater for the modern audience. If the setting is more realistic, then the audience would be able to relate to the events which occur in the film in greater depth. As the castle is not as realistic as the studio, it has been transformed into a studio as using the castle can ultimately weaken the film’s appeal to the modern audience.

    Read More

  • The Bernard Madoff Investment Scandal

    2631 Words  | 6 Pages

    Berenson, Alex; Henriques, Diana B. (December 13, 2008). "Look at Wall St. Wizard Finds Magic Had Skeptics". The New York Times.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Blair Witch Project

    1793 Words  | 4 Pages

    In recent decades, many have argued that the line between realism and fiction in cinematic endeavours has become increasingly blurred. It has not been until recently that the world has truly been exposed to this completely innovative cinematic style, which has captivated audiences with its new approach to filmmaking. This new cinematic style was first introduced in Eduardo Sánchez and Daniel Myrick’s The Blair Witch Project. Here I will focus on breaking down the various levels of realism within The Blair Witch Project, in order to convey why it had such a monumental impact on the cinematic world, while still remaining a popular and modern horror film to today’s audiences. In order to achieve this I will pay particular attention to the style of filming, the clever marketing campaign and the combination of fact and fiction, which helped captivate even the most, experienced of cinemagoers.

    Read More

  • Classical and Post-Classical Hollywood Cinema

    2472 Words  | 5 Pages

    Classic narrative cinema is what Bordwell, Staiger and Thompson (The classic Hollywood Cinema, Columbia University press 1985) 1, calls “an excessively obvious cinema”1 in which cinematic style serves to explain and not to obscure the narrative. In this way it is made up of motivated events that lead the spectator to its inevitable conclusion. It causes the spectator to have an emotional investment in this conclusion coming to pass which in turn makes the predictable the most desirable outcome. The films are structured to create an atmosphere of verisimilitude, which is to give a perception of reality. On closer inspection it they are often far from realistic in a social sense but possibly portray a realism desired by the patriarchal and family value orientated society of the time. I feel that it is often the black and white representation of good and evil that creates such an atmosphere of predic...

    Read More

  • Bestimmtheit in Short Film

    4687 Words  | 10 Pages

    This essay uses a contemporary short film and an 18th century text to discuss Chatman's concern of bestimmtheit in films. I hope to address certain concerns such as the extent to which a film can "specify" a particular object and what this specification does with regards to our understanding of the text. In addition, I will relate the compression of information into imagery to the limitations of time, given that a short film has a limit of 15 minutes. To do this, I shall analyse the cinematography of the short film, and show how relevant they are in bringing out certain scenarios described in Defoe's text. The short film in question is The Periwig-Maker, a clay-animated film directed by Stephen Schaeffler and narrated by actor Kenneth Brannagh, and it will be analysed with relation to the text it is based on, A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe.

    Read More

  • Scene Analysis of "The Green Mile"

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies An Introduction to Film, Second Edition (Set with DVD). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006. Print.

    Read More

  • The Godfather Film Analysis Essay

    1627 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.

    Read More

  • The Film Bicycle Thieves, The Earth Trembles, Open City

    1686 Words  | 4 Pages

    This form or realistic cinema provided the viewer with something completely different than they were used to seeing with the Classic Hollywood Style. These films hold a strong sense of the dilemma for the ordinary individual that is affected by political circumstances that are beyond their control. These actors were no longer perfectly attractive and trai...

    Read More

  • Romeo And Juliet Cultural Epoch

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    The film is filled, from its opening moments, “with glancing references to and overt borrowing from the cinema of violence: the Western, the gangster movie, the kung-fu pic, the urban drama, the crime thriller, [and] the action comedy.”6 As Philippa Hawker implies, the film is a kaleidoscope of recognisable film tropes and images, notable instances might be the dramatic slow motion shot of Tybalt 's cowboy boots stubbing a cigarette, followed by his dramatic flair when shooting the retreating Capulets; both based in a fight scene in which the choreography may have been recognised in the tradition of melding both 'western ' and 'action comedy '. Alfredo Michael Modeness appears to also concur with this judgement of Luhrmann 's style, but adds that the brawl is “underscored by more spaghetti western music and choreographed through a mix of formulaic moves from classic action films and comic strips.”7 Modeness 's assertion allows a consideration of why Romeo + Juliet has become such a part of the epoch in which it was created, and still remains to resonate today, as it follows formulaic film codes that are detectable to a modern audience, especially its target audience of youth culture, and therefore makes its perhaps 'dated

    Read More

  • Magic And Science

    1502 Words  | 4 Pages

    We have seen magic as a form of entertainment, from making someone disappear, to sawing a girl in half. But all great illusions have an explanation. “Magic, as we have seen, is about power- a seemingly magical power used and expressed by a skilled actor to create the illusion of miraculous happenings’. But the most mysterious part of magic is how these miraculous happenings are performed. The real power of magic lies within the native effects themselves (Blackstone, 117).

    Read More

More about Parallel Prestiges

Open Document