With his impeccable balance between cold precision and awe-inspiring sense of grandeur and spectacle,Christopher Nolanis perhaps the perfect amalgamation ofStanley KubrickandSteven Spielberg. As a director of science fiction in particular, Nolan’s auteur flair comes alive when dealing with matters beyond human capabilities. As adirector of seemingly mythical powers, such as turning a historical biopic aboutJ. Robert Oppenheimerinto a culturally seismic blockbuster,Nolan, as a brand name, is as strong as any piece of IP.
He makes the fantastical seem both gritty and imaginative, as seen in his filmsInceptionandInterstellar, simultaneously operating as crowd-pleasing entertainment and deeply personal expressions. While not a traditional sci-fi picture, Nolan’s 2006 mystery-thriller,The Prestige, released before he was the face of IMAX and cinema at its most high-octane, crystallizes his unique vision with more clarity, pathos, and inventiveness than any of his blockbusters.
Christopher Nolan’s Style and Themes Were Perfect for ‘The Prestige’
Withonly oneBatmanmovie under his belt, Christopher Nolan was a signature mystery-thriller director of the time, coming off creative and mind-bending genre exercises inMementoandInsomnia. Much like seeing a newM. Night Shyamalanexperience, audiences braced to get the rug pulled out from under them in Nolan’s hands. At the very least, they know that Nolan will not be confined to a linear structure. The writer-director pushed the envelope withThe Prestige,a film with a subject well-suited to his fascination with blurred realities and deception.StarringChristian BaleandHugh Jackmanas rival magicians in Victorian London, the film follows Alfred Borden (Bale) and Robert Angier (Jackman) trying to one-up each other in every cutthroat way to pull off the ultimate stage illusion: teleportation.
Nolan’s more prominent and higher-scale films,InceptionandInterstellar, are explicitly sci-fi, butThe Prestigefeatures the genre’s necessary hallmarks, as well as signature traits carried over by Nolan in his later films. WhereInceptionandInterstellarget bogged down in having their characters explain the parameters of their trade, rapidly spewing jargon, Nolan gracefully underlines the basic construct of magic inThe Prestige.As his spectacle and visual audaciousness grew, he became more clunky and less seamless as a writer. While it is charming to watch him passionately convey the idea of communicating love via black holes inInterstellar, it lacks the bold precision ofThe Prestige. The film treats the fantastical craft of magic with the same level of groundednessasThe Dark Knightdoes with comic book lore.
‘The Prestige’ Has More Narrative Clarity and Moral Ambiguity Than ‘Inception’ or ‘Interstellar’
Between his nonlinear narratives and frequent cases of inaudible dialogue, Christopher Nolan iscomfortable leaving things unclear, no matter how hard he tries to explain the minutia of dream exploration inInceptionor quantum physics inInterstellar. Without resorting to verbose dialogue, Nolan outlines the art and technical process of magic — to a point, because after all, a good magician never reveals their tricks.He makes the viewer feel like a close observer of Borden and Angier’s elaborate constructionand execution of their performances. This sense of being privy to the secrets of crafting an illusion makes the film’sgobsmacking climactic twista triumph, effective as a piece of narrative construction and a dramatic device. LikeOrson Wellesin his documentary on fraud and deception,F for Fake, Nolan takes a bow for the audience, as we never realized he was performing as a magician the whole time.
The Most Utterly Baffling Moment in a Christopher Nolan Movie Still Leaves Me Speechless
Did they even do a second take?
InceptionandInterstellarboth center around gifted architects and scientists who dedicate their entire livelihoods to a greater, more profound cause beyond our universe, and they speak to Nolan’s meditation on balancing work with family. While these films grapple with such morally complex dilemmas at an impressive level for a mainstream blockbuster,The Prestige, which follows characters you’re not always supposed to sympathize with, is the most confrontational ofNolan’s “great man” archetype,only to be rivaled by his portrait of the brilliant but delusional titular architect of the nuclear bomb inOppenheimer. In comparison, his future blockbusters lean too far into feeling sorry for Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Cooper (Matthew McConaughey). As Nolan became more visually dynamic, he lost some critical edge in his characterization.
Upon reaching household name status followingThe Dark KnightandInception,The Prestigebecame the hip, fashionable choice to be your favorite Christopher Nolan film. Although it lacks the audacious spectacle of his later epics,this mystery-thriller with sprinkles of sci-fi encapsulatesNolan’s own magic trickby taking a cryptic subject and turning it into a work of engaging, endlessly dissectable entertainment. At its core, this is what science fiction ought to strive for.
The Prestige
After a tragic accident, two stage magicians in 1890s London engage in a battle to create the ultimate illusion while sacrificing everything they have to outwit each other.
