This time, with a brilliant film to show the world his extraordinary talent in narrative structure and video editing. It proves that it is not necessary to use any acting school to support the stage to make a movie with a wonderful plot, but only two handsome men who run out of the anime drama and a high-quality vase are enough. A good plot can make you ignore the actor himself and fall into the atmosphere set by him alone, because he is the truly gorgeous protagonist and the most brilliant magician.
Earlier, "Fragments of Memories" has already made me worship it. The complex editing techniques are used to the extreme in the film, like a jigsaw puzzle game for adults. I still remember myself sitting in front of the screen, holding a notepad and pen, staring at the screen, making notes between the constantly switching black and white order and the color reverse order, and reordering, lest I accidentally miss anything important. The details, 45 time periods are like 45 puzzles, making me rushed and sweating profusely.
Let's talk about this film again.
The editing of The Prestige is much simpler than "Memories", and it is much more humane, so it doesn't seem to be very laborious, and there is free to drink. As long as you watch carefully enough, replay it occasionally, and catch important foreshadowings and hints, then the ending of the film is not difficult to guess.
Two top magicians have faced each other in their lives, plagiarizing and debunking each other, hoping to defeat each other and become No. 1. It's a pity that the war ended, a complete death, half of a dying life, there is no real winner.
4 men.
1. Cutter. The only man with a clear subject in the film, Angier's prop master. The bird-changing trilogy performed to the girl in the opening reveals the theme and ending of the film. Especially for the later metaphor of Angier's fate, at the expense of constantly killing one himself, and then another jaw-dropping self appears.
2. Borden, twin brother. One gentle, one radical, two separate souls, but a highly consistent fanatical for magic, willingly take turns to play the two roles of Borden and Fallon, sharing the same body. Cooperation is seamless, sharing everything about each other, but can't give happiness to each other's lover, because they only love one of the souls.
I prefer to call the one who loves his wife and daughter Borden, and the one who loves Olivia and eventually hangs as Fallon. At this point, they are luckier than Angier, because Angier can only find a stand-in who looks exactly like him. Although he looks like him, he is still a drunk who only knows about threats and drunkenness.
3. Angier. The aristocratic man gave up the title for his beloved magic. Although he is not as talented as Borden, he knows how to cater to the taste of the audience and arouse the atmosphere of the scene. One of Borden made a wrong knot, which led to the accidental death of Angier's wife. When Borden was later asked why he had made a mistake, the evasive reply was not only a foreshadowing of the uniqueness of Borden's subject, but also a desire for revenge.
Every performance of Angier meant that he had to kill a self cloned by the machine under the stage, so he arranged Cutter in the front desk, and placed a blind guard in the backstage to prevent leaks. In the final shot of Angier's death, there are boxes filled with water and his clones on both sides. He also lost his courage in the process of killing his clones again and again.
4. Tesla. A real person in history, an electrical genius who invented alternating current, a colleague of Edison. Originally only intended to make a machine that would make objects disappear, but inadvertently accomplished an even more incredible feat ---replication. This machine made Angier the greatest magician status and successfully put Borden to death.
3 women.
Women are just a trivial foil in this movie.
1. Angier's wife. Borden drowned on the stage because of a mistake in tying a knot, which became the most direct source of Angier's revenge.
2. Olivia. At the beginning, it was Angier's lover, and was later sent to Borden to steal secrets, and fell in love with Borden, and finally left because of Borden's indifferent attitude towards his wife Sarah's suicide. In fact, the man sitting across the table is the one who really loves himself.
3. Sarah. Borden's wife finally quarreled in despair because Borden had too many secrets and lies, and committed suicide. Until death, there is no way to know whether the gentle man who gave the key to himself in front of the mansion really loves himself, or just stays in countless unexplainable TODAY.
"Secret is my life", Borden answered his confused wife.
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