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CHRISTOPHER NOLAN on 'THE PRESTIGE'
Contributed by Michael J. Lee, Executive Editor
for Radio Free Entertainment
October 14, 2006
In the period thriller The Prestige, a pair of magicians begin as colleagues and end as bitter rivals caught in a tangled web of one-upmanship. With an act tailored more for style than substance, Angier (Hugh Jackman) gains greater fame thanks to his flashier presentation, leaving the more talented Borden (Christian Bale) bitter and resentful. Yet Angier recognizes true skill when he sees it, and when he witnesses Borden perform "the greatest magic trick ever," he becomes obsessed with learning his secrets. What follows is a rampant rivalry that escalates into deception, blackmail, assault, and murder.
The Prestige is a fantastical mystery with enough twists and turns to keep many viewers guessing till the very end. Jackman and Bale deliver superb performances as men consumed by their obsessions and misdeeds, while the very solid supporting cast includes Michael Caine, Andy Serkis, and David Bowie, as well as Scarlett Johansson and Piper Perabo as a pair of beautiful stage assistants.
In this interview, director Christopher Nolan talks about the making of the movie.
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The Interview
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MEDIA: Did you structure the film to parallel the three parts of a magic trick: the pledge, the turn, and the prestige?
CHRISTOPHER: Yeah. Basically, the idea was always really to address to magic from the point of view of not trying to show magic in the film and impress people with stage magic, because that can't work on film. People are aware of camera trickery and all the rest. The idea was always to create a marriage of that function according to the principles of a magic trick, or a set of magic tricks. And that involved conforming to this three act structure.
When the novel was published, it was regarded as science fiction. Do you think this film falls into that genre?
I think one of the things that I was very interested about making this film--Well, one of the things that fascinated me about this subject and this story is I don't believe it is possible to categorize it very specifically. I think that undeniably there's an element of science-fiction in it that has to be apparent to the audience from early in the film. But at the same time, I think it's probably better described as a thriller of some kind. But I don't know exactly, which for me is the most interesting kind of film to work on, something that doesn't quite fit in to any one box.
What made you feel that Christian was right for the role of Borden?
Well I think that the most accurate thing to be said about Christian, and one of the reasons he's terrific to work with, is he takes what he does very, very seriously, but he doesn't take himself very seriously.
How so?
He just has a very grounded approach to life. And has a sense of humor about himself, but takes his work very seriously. And it's a hard line to straddle. It's a very hard attitude to strike. But it's one that really benefits the work greatly. And I've been fortunate to work with several actors like him.
And what about Hugh for the role of Angier?
Well, what Hugh has in spades, really, is he's a terrific movie actor, a terrific film actor, but he's also a wonderful stage performer. And this role requires an actor who can convey a comfort level and a power in his relationship with an audience that transcends his abilities as a magician. It's a very difficult thing to put across visually. He absolutely manages to do it, and I think that his stage experience is a big part of that. Christian, on the other hand, is able to convey, quite marvelously I think, the idea of somebody who's tremendously gifted as a magician, but has no understanding of what an audience needs from him to appreciate what he's doing.
Do you think you have it in you to direct a comedy?
[laughs] I think they're all comedies. To me, comedy is best expressed through drama, actually. I actually find funny moments in serious films to be the most rewarding kind of comedy, except I think that's probably...Yeah, I think doing specifically a comedy, as a genre, is unlikely.
Do you feel there is a parallel between this movie and The Sting, seeing as how they both require viewers to unravel a con game of sorts?
Well, yeah...particularly when we were trying to figure out how to sell this film to a studio early on. It's like what story paradigm is it? And there are very few sort of two-hander story paradigms. The Sting is one of them. There are others where there's no good guy, bad guy, so it's very tricky. I mean, Michael Mann's Heat is another one, actually, in a completely different direction. They do exist, but they're few and far between. The Sting is quite a close one. Sleuth is another one.
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Were you concerned about casting Michael Caine again with Christian right after doing Batman? That people would think it was trick casting in some way?
No, because they're such great movie stars. It's like, to me, you just sort of accept it. I might have had more pause if the key relationship was between them. If the relationship was similar to what it was in the last film, that might have given me pause of thought. But Cutter's relationship is very much with Hugh's character. So no, I think they're just very talented people.
Christian was talking about the nature of doing a period film and he was conscious of not acting as he's seen other people act in other period films. Were you trying to keep it modern though it takes place at the turn of the century?
Yeah, very much. I really wanted to avoid the sort of alienation factor with period films, this barrier that often exists because of the formality or the sort of starch quality of period films. And a lot of that is in the cinematography and the style in which the film is shot. A lot of it is also the performances. And a lot of what actors do, and we talked, Christian and I and everybody, we talked about this in rehearsals, a lot of actors' ideas of how Victorians behaved is simply having watched other actors who simply watched other actors doing this kind of process of compounding artifice in a way. We don't have much usable film, or recording of people of that era, where there is film recording it's not spontaneous, it's not casual, it's not real life, it's performance. And so we decided to take the approach of just treating it as a contemporary story.
This is a story that's driven by straight narrative, but it's also driven by flashbacks and by references to notebooks and so on. How much of a challenge was finding the right structure for it?
It was quite challenging to find the right structure. And it took a lot of time. We really spent years working on the script. And it required interlocking framing devices and interlocking voiceovers combined with the notion of structuring using the three act structure of the trick. Yeah, it took a long time. The key being the need to express multiple points of view purposefully and clearly. It was a difficult script to write.
Were there any accidents or close calls on set with Hugh and Christian?
No. Safety on set is something that's extraordinarily important to me. Everything is done in the most boring way possible, truthfully. And when you work with very talented stunt professionals and special effects professionals, it's possible to make everything very, very safe.
Have there been any magic shows that you've seen that have just really blown you away?
Yeah, I mean awesome. I mean, specifically in regards to this film, Ricky Jay is in the film, does extraordinary slight of hand tricks and card tricks and things. Also, my production designer and I went out to Las Vegas and watched David Copperfield.
So you still think Copperfield is one of the best of his generation?
Yeah, on that grand scale of magic. It's the polar opposite to what Ricky does. In that show, we sat in the front table right by the stage and he made a, I think it was, an old Lincoln appear like two feet in front of us, like that. And that's an extraordinary thing to see. I think a lot of what magicians did for audiences in the Victorian era has simply traveled into film. But I think that magic, live magic, particularly close-up magic, the magic that's done at your table, still has the same appeal that it always had, and I think it always will.
Were there any Batman versus Wolverine jokes on the set?
One or two. Yeah...There's Batman and Wolverine, and we've also got Ziggy Stardust and King Kong.
Speaking of the other stars, can you talk about the casting? Your supporting cast is extraordinary. Can you talk about Bowie, Scarlett, and Andy?
They were an incredible bunch. I mean, Bowie, particularly, was very essential figure in that casting, because Tesla's a small part, but a very important part in the film. And you have to, the audience has to see him on screen, and immediately invest a tremendous amount of belief in his abilities as some kind of, well, magician, wizard. And I felt that to get a movie start to do that would be very distracting. Bowie's sort of presence and charisma comes from a different place. It's harder to define, but very palpable. So I'm very lucky to have convinced him to do it.
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