A little different...
Like my Memento essay (http://www.nolanfans.com/forums/viewtop ... 20#p404583) I got a 100 on my The Prestige essay and so I have to translate it for my lecturer. I'm only translating my favorite parts for him which is what I'm putting here now, I will later translate and add the whole thing, as I did with Memento
I'd love to hear what you think. While I loved writing the Memento essay and I was really proud of it, this one is different, harder, and in a way I found it more inspiring when coming up with these things, for my own scripts.
Note the first bit explains what you need to know to understand the latter. What are Mythologies (we had to pick a few Mythologies in a film and write about them), as we were meant to analyse them. We see Mythologies as a language - in a movie it's the cinematic language (anything from costumes to camera angles to dialogue and whatever). That's all you basically need to know to understans this
Apologies for my English, not my first language and this is translated from Hebrew.
Mythologies in The Prestige
[intro]........
The Myth is eternal. It yearns to lift the object and make it a legend. The history freezes and remains forever, the Myth sticks. The Myth tells us how to live, while science tells us how to think. In Myths we're on "automatic". When you follow a Myth, you live by it. It turns the history into nature (Barthes, 1998: 258), values, something you can count on. The Myth isn't the object or idea itself, it is the means of interpretation. According to Barthes, Mythologies are a language.
[...]
Barthes translates Mythologies into semiotic terms. He distinguishes between two types of semiotic languages – regular languages, which are not mythological, and the language of Myth which distorts the first language. The Myth "increases" the signifier. Since the proportions change, it changes the the signified and the entire equation, and so the interpretation of the object changes [don't worry if you don't understand this bit]. The new object is the Mythological object.
[...]
The consumer of the Myth needs to come with an intention. He needs to be a part of the society of which the Myth could be a part of. You can not prove or disprove a Myth. Myths belong in the realm of beliefs and they're untouchable. You're a slave to the Myth you grew up to believe in.
However, there are two ways to kill a Myth. The first is slaughtering it, a cruel demise. Its results would shock the consumer's world to the core. The second is "death in time". The aging of the Myth in contradiction to the renewable society.
The main Myth in The Prestige is the Magic Show, similar to Barthes' 'le catch' (Barthes, 1998: 17-28)...
The viewer doesn't concern oneself in the 'development of fates'. The viewer is only interested in fulfilling his own passions and desires. Once the magician appears on stage, the audience knows exactly what his role is. His purposefulness is so defined, it requires that the Magic Show would be exactly as the audience expects it to be.
[...]
An example can be seen in the scene where Angier performs his final version of the Transported Man for the first time, successfully. The scene is extremely detailed. Tesla's electric machine which creates sparks, at a time in which electricity was rare, which certainly enhances the audience's spectacle. Close-ups on members of the audience, especially Borden, whose jealousy and wonder are clear. Angier's prestige shot as he reappears, many meters away from the stage, increase of the signifier - Angier is shot entirely, from below, above the audience and says "A man's reach exceeds his imagination". He just broke the rules of science, he became a legend. Later in the film it becomes apparent that the reason for this is not because Angier wanted to make himself a legend, but rather, he did this to see "the looks on their [the audience's] faces". To fulfill their passions. The Myth of the Magic Show.
The film's goal is to break this Myth. To bring the backstage into the front of the stage. To emphasize the loss and the sacrifice that the magicians go through in order to wow the audience, and on the other hand, the films tries to make the viewer understand that in the eyes of the artist, the magician, the director - it is worth it. If the illusionist (the magician, of the director of the film himself) performs his art successfully, in accordance to the audience's expectations, the audience will only notice what goes on the stage, or screen, and not the work that occurs behind his sight. The work done to build the illusion.
In another scene, where Angier tries to make the cage of a bird disappear, with the bird returning, freed, at the end, as the prestige, he calls members of the audience to come and inspect the cage. He doesn't notice that Borden comes up as well. Borden destroys the cage in another audience member's hands, breaking her fingers and killing the bird, which causes a turmoil among the audience, screams and shock. We see more of the audience's faces rather than the two magicians. The effect of the slaughter of the Myth to its consumers.
This is some of the first Myth. The other one will be revealed when I put the rest up
Like my Memento essay (http://www.nolanfans.com/forums/viewtop ... 20#p404583) I got a 100 on my The Prestige essay and so I have to translate it for my lecturer. I'm only translating my favorite parts for him which is what I'm putting here now, I will later translate and add the whole thing, as I did with Memento
I'd love to hear what you think. While I loved writing the Memento essay and I was really proud of it, this one is different, harder, and in a way I found it more inspiring when coming up with these things, for my own scripts.
Note the first bit explains what you need to know to understand the latter. What are Mythologies (we had to pick a few Mythologies in a film and write about them), as we were meant to analyse them. We see Mythologies as a language - in a movie it's the cinematic language (anything from costumes to camera angles to dialogue and whatever). That's all you basically need to know to understans this
Apologies for my English, not my first language and this is translated from Hebrew.
Mythologies in The Prestige
[intro]........
The Myth is eternal. It yearns to lift the object and make it a legend. The history freezes and remains forever, the Myth sticks. The Myth tells us how to live, while science tells us how to think. In Myths we're on "automatic". When you follow a Myth, you live by it. It turns the history into nature (Barthes, 1998: 258), values, something you can count on. The Myth isn't the object or idea itself, it is the means of interpretation. According to Barthes, Mythologies are a language.
[...]
Barthes translates Mythologies into semiotic terms. He distinguishes between two types of semiotic languages – regular languages, which are not mythological, and the language of Myth which distorts the first language. The Myth "increases" the signifier. Since the proportions change, it changes the the signified and the entire equation, and so the interpretation of the object changes [don't worry if you don't understand this bit]. The new object is the Mythological object.
[...]
The consumer of the Myth needs to come with an intention. He needs to be a part of the society of which the Myth could be a part of. You can not prove or disprove a Myth. Myths belong in the realm of beliefs and they're untouchable. You're a slave to the Myth you grew up to believe in.
However, there are two ways to kill a Myth. The first is slaughtering it, a cruel demise. Its results would shock the consumer's world to the core. The second is "death in time". The aging of the Myth in contradiction to the renewable society.
The main Myth in The Prestige is the Magic Show, similar to Barthes' 'le catch' (Barthes, 1998: 17-28)...
The viewer doesn't concern oneself in the 'development of fates'. The viewer is only interested in fulfilling his own passions and desires. Once the magician appears on stage, the audience knows exactly what his role is. His purposefulness is so defined, it requires that the Magic Show would be exactly as the audience expects it to be.
[...]
An example can be seen in the scene where Angier performs his final version of the Transported Man for the first time, successfully. The scene is extremely detailed. Tesla's electric machine which creates sparks, at a time in which electricity was rare, which certainly enhances the audience's spectacle. Close-ups on members of the audience, especially Borden, whose jealousy and wonder are clear. Angier's prestige shot as he reappears, many meters away from the stage, increase of the signifier - Angier is shot entirely, from below, above the audience and says "A man's reach exceeds his imagination". He just broke the rules of science, he became a legend. Later in the film it becomes apparent that the reason for this is not because Angier wanted to make himself a legend, but rather, he did this to see "the looks on their [the audience's] faces". To fulfill their passions. The Myth of the Magic Show.
The film's goal is to break this Myth. To bring the backstage into the front of the stage. To emphasize the loss and the sacrifice that the magicians go through in order to wow the audience, and on the other hand, the films tries to make the viewer understand that in the eyes of the artist, the magician, the director - it is worth it. If the illusionist (the magician, of the director of the film himself) performs his art successfully, in accordance to the audience's expectations, the audience will only notice what goes on the stage, or screen, and not the work that occurs behind his sight. The work done to build the illusion.
In another scene, where Angier tries to make the cage of a bird disappear, with the bird returning, freed, at the end, as the prestige, he calls members of the audience to come and inspect the cage. He doesn't notice that Borden comes up as well. Borden destroys the cage in another audience member's hands, breaking her fingers and killing the bird, which causes a turmoil among the audience, screams and shock. We see more of the audience's faces rather than the two magicians. The effect of the slaughter of the Myth to its consumers.
This is some of the first Myth. The other one will be revealed when I put the rest up