Cutter: Now you're looking for the secret. But you won't find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled.
Robert: The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder.
Alfred: Are you watching closely?
and plenty others
My question is were these lines taken from Christopher Priest's novel? If not, then it really gives me more reasons to applaud Nolan.
P.S: If there is ONE thing I don't particularly like about The Prestige, it is the Duplicator. Prior to my first viewing, I never thought of the film as a Sci-Fi, certainly no REAL magic. So I was surprised when I found out the Telsa Duplicator actually worked and was a critical plot device in the movie. I felt like I was being cheated or fooled because Nolan took a shortcut. It is a little contradictory to the central theme of the movie.
Robert: The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder.
discoveringuy wrote:
P.S: If there is ONE thing I don't particularly like about The Prestige, it is the Duplicator. Prior to my first viewing, I never thought of the film as a Sci-Fi, certainly no REAL magic. So I was surprised when I found out the Telsa Duplicator actually worked and was a critical plot device in the movie. I felt like I was being cheated or fooled because Nolan took a shortcut. It is a little contradictory to the central theme of the movie.
I think it was necessary to sustain at least one of the themes of the movie: one-upmanship. By the time the Tesla machine shows up, in my opinion it is supposed to take things to ridiculous heights so that the audience thinks that Borden can then only be an evil wizard of some kind or something. That makes the real ending that much more surprising and brilliant (or a let down if you're one of the idiot critics). Borden is vindicated in every way and Angier is just an a**hole
discoveringuy wrote:
P.S: If there is ONE thing I don't particularly like about The Prestige, it is the Duplicator. Prior to my first viewing, I never thought of the film as a Sci-Fi, certainly no REAL magic. So I was surprised when I found out the Telsa Duplicator actually worked and was a critical plot device in the movie. I felt like I was being cheated or fooled because Nolan took a shortcut. It is a little contradictory to the central theme of the movie.
I think it was necessary to sustain at least one of the themes of the movie: one-upmanship. By the time the Tesla machine shows up, in my opinion it is supposed to take things to ridiculous heights so that the audience thinks that Borden can then only be an evil wizard of some kind or something. That makes the real ending that much more surprising and brilliant (or a let down if you're one of the idiot critics). Borden is vindicated in every way and Angier is just an a**hole
That's totally how I saw things. By going to the extreme it makes the exact opposite even more powerful.
bruce_angier wrote:Robert: The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder.
Funny that this line can be said about movies.
Basically what Nolan did within the Prestige and now once again for INCEPTION.
Angier was so obsessed with upstaging Borden that he was willing to resort to any means - even science. The movie is not about magic, its about the relentless competition between two magicians. Magic is just the background.
Location: We can't stop here, this is Bat Country!
I thought phrases like: "man's reach exceeds his imagination", the 3 acts of magic and such were used before somewhere, but I believe most of the film and specially the dialogue of the end is a reflection and thought (by the Nolans) on filmmaking as a credible and deceivable force of illusion and art.
