Hey Presto! "The Illusionist" and "The Prestige"

(This is another article of mine which was originally published at passionforcinema.com )

Making films about magic has an air of convenience. You just know that there are going to be 'it' moments popping up from time to time........"Deus Ex Machina" is a term used in literature and theatre (in Latin, literally "god out of a machine" ) to describe sudden contrived plot devices. It is easy to surmise that when the focal point of a film is magic, there is no getting away from Deus Ex Machina. The trick is pulling it off, not trying to fool the audience.

Recently I watched two films which managed to do this, with different degrees of success- Neil Burger's "The Illusionist" and Christopher Nolan's "The Prestige".Both films were released in 2006, both were period pieces inspired by literary works set in the early 20th century, but the similarities end there. While "The Illusionist" is like a demure, sober,refined symphony which only lets it hair down in the final 15 minutes or so, "The Prestige" is a big sprawling ambitious romp powered by an ensemble cast.

"The Illusionist" based on Pulitzer-winner Steve Millhauser's short story "Eisenheim the Illusionist" chronicles the story of a shadowy, mysterious magician who is in love with a duchess, set to be the royal consort of the Austrian crown prince. His own troubled past haunts him continuously as he travels around Vienna performing amazing, never-before seen illusions(a paricularly spectacular one involving an orange tree is one of the high points of the film). Ed Norton as Eisenheim is reasonably subdued. The mystique his character exudes is sometimes tedious but overall this is another competent portrayal by one of my favourite actors(American History X remains one of all-time faves). The Duchess von Teschen played by Jessica Biel is not a very demanding role, and Biel manages to look radiant and has a pleasing screen presence.

But the real performance of the film comes from Paul Giamatti who plays Inspector Uhl, a crooked policeman loyal to the cruel, twisted Prince Leopold , but at the same time besotted with Eisenheim's artistry. Uhl is an intriguingly ambiguous character. He thinks that Eisenheim is a treasure but has no qualms about incarcerating or even killing him in order to further his own ambitions under the impending regime under Leopold. The scene where he tries to convince Eisenheim of the futility of his actions is a delight. So is the climactic sequence where Uhl realises the full extent of Eisenheim's web of illusions. He realises that he has been conned big-time, but at the same time he cannot help but marvel at the master illusionist's genius.

The film's cinematography has a charming, simplistic old-world charm about it. While everyone may not like the film's Usual Suspects like climactic "twist" the film manages to do just enough to hold your attention.

"The Prestige" which hit the theatres months after "The Illusionist" tells the story of Robert Angier(Hugh Jackman) and Alfred Borden(Christian Bale), two warring magicians who are always looking to get the better of each other. On one level, it is a straightforward gunslinger rivalry tale, but it in fact explores much deeper questions about the nature of reality, and the terrible power of obesession. Michael Caine plays William Cutter, maker of magical apparatus who is in many ways the conscience-keeper of the story. The cast is rounded off by Scarlett Johannson playing Olivia, a woman torn between the two rivals, and David Bowie who has a magisterial cameo as Nikola Tesla, the famed inventor.
The Chris Nolan brand of storytelling first seen in Memento and perfected in Batman Begins is in full flow here, right from the opening scene where Angier performs a complicated trick called "The Teleported Man" , alternated with Cutter explaining to a young girl the three stages of a magic trick, the last being "The Prestige". Angier wants to unlock the secrets of Borden's tricks through his ciphered journal but Borden, who is a clearly superior magician technically, always has a few tricks extra up his sleeves. Journals prove to be dead ends, stories turn out to be unreliable, this Chinese puzzle-box styled plot leaves th audience gasping for breath but in the end it is Nolan who guides the ship home with an immaculate sense of timing.

One of the many interesting things about the film is its de-mysticised treatment of the magicians as opposed to Eisenheim's mystique and mastery in "The Illusionist". Angier and Borden are painfully human, they are stabbed, shot, pummelled into submission. They are petty, often insecure and always vindictive. On the other hand it is the scientist Tesla who has been portrayed as the real magician, a shaman-like dabbler in all things dark and mysterious. Case in point being Tesla's entry scene where he steps out of a huge machine, elaborate electric sparks flowing all around him. Cutter says in a scene, "We are just pretenders acting the parts of magicians but that machine was horrible.......it was real magic." , about a machine Tesla made for Angier. The real-life rivalry between Thomas Edison and Tesla has been depicted here as a sort of mirror for the Angier-Borden rivalry.

Fresh off the back of the dark reboot of the Batman saga "Batman Begins" Nolan teamed up with Christian Bale and veteran Michael Caine once again with spectacular results. The camera loves Bale's deep dark brooding gaze and his innate inscrutability shines across in the grim, determined character Borden. The "unreliable narrator" device employed by Nolan works to a tee as you are kept guessing in this lavishly told story.

On the whole, I think that "The Prestige" gains a point over "The Illusionist" for its greater scope, better performances, and for Nolan's artistry. I hope to catch his next film "The Dark Knight" real soon, which even as I write these words, has already started to draw rave reviews from around the world.

Kafkaesque goes places

These are some articles of mine published at Passionforcinema.com , a website where the authors include a lot of eminent personalities associated with Indian cinema , like Anurag Kashyap, Santosh Sivan, Sudhir Mishra, Revathy and many others.......... If you are a movie buff, this is your one-stop destination !!

1. Road To Perdition: A Modern Classic
2. Bookworms and Movie Maniacs: Literary Adaptations in Cinema

Orbis Terrarum : One World

Reading challenges aren't usually as much fun as this. I mean, there is only much so much Russian stuff or so much medieval literature you can digest at one go. But this is one challenge which is worth taking. This is the Orbis Terrarum challenge hosted by the lit-blog B&b Ex Libris.(By the way,the blog is beyond cool!) The rules are pretty simple- you have to choose nine books written by authors belonging to nine different nationalities. If this doesn't already satisfy your taste for variety, it gets better and better- you can change your list at any point in the duration of the challenge- which is for 9 months starting from April 2008 to December 2008. Just post about the challenge on your blog along with your list and join in the fun.

This is my list

1) Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra (India)
2) American Pastoral by Philip Roth(USA)
3) Identity by Milan Kundera(France)
4) The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass(Germany)
5) Ring by Koji Suzuki(Japan)
6) Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee(South Africa)
7) Amsterdam by Ian McEwan(England)
8) The Day The Leader Was Killed by Naguib Mahfouz(Egypt)
9) Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt(Ireland)

Affortlessly Rhythmatic Commentraitors

Scenes from a commentary box during the recent IPL:

Dramatis personae: Aamir Sohail and Waqar Younis(With guest appearances from Wasim Akram and Rameez Raja)

Ishant Sharma charges in to bowl another snorter at the Kings XI batsman Shaun Marsh. Promptly, Sohail notices something hitherto unknown about the young Indian speedster.

Sohail: Waqar, I think the reason that Ashant(yeah, that's the way he says it, but I'll come to that in a minute) is getting all that extra bounce is that he is a big lanky lad.

(The sagely Waqar mulls over these musings and comes up with his own carefully-thought out analysis)
Waqar: Another reason could be that he's also very tall.
(Aamir is clearly impressed, this little nugget had escaped his attention)

Welcome to the Aamir Sohail-Waqar Younis school of cricket commentary for dummies.(Featuring such eminent guest lecturers like Rameez Raja and Wasim Akram)
Lesson 1: Linguistic Creativity
Come up with alternate pronunciations, alternate phraseology, hell even an alternate language.

Reference Text: Aamir Sohail and Waqar Younis in action during the recent India-Sri Lanka match at Karachi

Rudra Pratap Singh delivers another accurate over. The centre of attention is the UP pacer's bowling action
Sohail: His action is so smooth, so Affortless.Younis: Yes, I think the key here is that his run-up is quite rhythmatic.
(Call me old-fashioned, guys, but whatever happened to good old "rhythmic" ??)

Lesson 2 : What's in a name?
Good commentators know their Shakespeare from their.....um...Sidhu. Names are your playground, people. Kick them, smash them to pulp by the sheer force of your oratory.

Reference Text: Sohail, Rameez, Wasim or Younis in any match featuring India in the past year

Yuvraj Singh thumps one over the midwicket region. Promptly, Sohail, that astute observer of mankind, chips in.

Sohail: OH THAT'S ANOTHER ONE!!!!!! YOVRAJ !!

Younis: YOvraj ....he is really on fire today. Mister Six!!!
(With this slightly questionable epithet given to Yuvraj, Younis again relapses into an anecdote about how he chased Abdul Qadir's cat around the Karachi stadium with a pad. Or something.)
Ishant Sharma has, meanwhile begun to tear out a significant portion of his lion's mane, patiently explaining to Waqar and co. that his name is in fact, Ishant and not Ashant. Wasim reminds Ishant/Ashant that young pacers ought to focus on cricket alone.

Lesson 3: Keep an eye on your articles
What chance does the trio of "A, an , the" have when you have the deadly trio of Sohail and the two W's? Verbal anarchy is let loose. Go forth, ye dogs of war!

Reference Text: The above mentioned gentlemen in anything remotely resembling a studio or a commentary box.
India are chasing 309 under lights. Gautam Gambhir drives one towards the cover boundary only to find a sweeper already stationed. This foresight impresses Waqar to no end.

Waqar: Oh.....he is a smart bowler! He has got A Protection there.

Sohail: Whenever you are with these batsmen, you have got to be with A Protection. Otherwise, he'll(motioning towards Sehwag) hit you all night.
Waqar: The Virender Sehwag is really on the rampage tonight.

Epilogue: Admissions are open now. If you want to make it big as a commentator or better still, realise your dream of being in a commentary box with these august gentlemen, look no further. Parting lesson: Come up with jewels borne entirely of your own device. Always,always, ALWAYS call your fellow commentators funny names in a fake Irish accent.

Sohail: It's over to my fellow Commentraitor now, Waqar Younis, and with him is Danny "Denzongpa" Morrison.
Younis: Thank you Aamir. Yes, Dhoni has got a beautiful head on his shoulders.....