Le Prestige

Why would Nolan use this as the first shot of the movie and give away an important story point way too early?

Bc he knows he knows a large part of his audience is brain damaged

Don't forget your hat, Mr. Angears

Because no one watching this film for the first time would look at a bunch of top hats and think "Oh shit son...he's using clones of himself to do a magic trick". Maybe only 5% of people immediately guessd the ending upon seeing a shit ton of hats.

Not right there obviously, but the moment Tesla asks Angier for his hat to test the machine, you instantly know what's going on; and yet, the movie still spends aditional 10-20 minutes of supposed tension about whether the machine works or not and in which capacity

A brief shot of the birdcages back in the workshop would have been as meaninful, without making the story give itself away prematurely

>human copying machine

Do you happen to be artistic?

Because thats the pledge you cunt. Shows you something ordinary that obviously isnt. Its not until the prestige that you will understand. Watch the movie and listen to Michael caine ya dip

The tension of the machine isnt that it makes copies, its the uncertainty of whether or not you are the man who leaves the machine alive or the one in the tank

this.

And if I might add, the ultimate prestige isnt the cloning machine, its Borden's twins.

Why didn't he just clone himself and then live alongside his clone?

would it be gay if hugh jackman cloned himself and had butt sex with his clone?

would that be considered masturbation?

And yet, you are both. There's no "copy", or if it makes it easier to understand, *both* are copies. Tesla explains this specifically, and neither Angier (because of his character flaws) nor a lot of people discussing the movie to this day (because we're idiots) get it

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The value of the two Bordens was that they only lived the life of one. As far as Angier's imagination or dedication went, a clone would have been like a double, which would have the risk of public exposure that Borden made sure not to have.

Agreed but the turmoil of angeir is not knowing which one he ends up as, even though like you said he is in reality both. Which is why when caine told him he lied about drowning and that it was agony, angier is distraught

this is one of those movies where a new discussion always opens up another layer and meaning. Really fascinating movie.

Newp; that shot illustrates the Prestige, not the Pledge. Literally, if you consider the superimposed title, and Nolan's penchant for usually not showing the title at the beginning of his films.

The pledge (the "ordinary" part), begins inmediately after that (coinciding with the engineer's narration), it's basically the first act of the movie, until Borden's trick is first revealed

Borden's rubber ball would be a more apt metaphor for the concept of Pledge anyway

>and for my next trick! I shall now make 100 of my own soggy corpses appear on stage!

Touche never thought of it like that.

Easily the best of Nolan's films

Prestige is actually really good and I dont' care for Nolan. Haven't seen Following yet. How is it?

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>Borden's rubber ball would be a more apt metaphor for the concept of Pledge anyway

Maybe if we were an audience in the world of the film, and we were watching a documentary about the Bordens. Bringing Borden back is just part of the twins' prestige.

The hats are much more significant to the film itself. They are a morbid representation of what Angier has done. It's not just that the tension doesn't revolve around whether the machine works, or what it can do, but how it is used. And in the context of the movie, that is the prestige (you could see the opening shot as the pledge, and the realization that the machine works as the turn) if you really wanted to apply the concept of the prestige to the movie itself.

That scene was brutal

Because its his fucking movie. God, is this what "essays" youtube channels are making to plebs.
>narrate with images not whit dialoguesxd
> the first shot in your movie must tell everything about the charracters and how the movie will develope
>blablabla


Make the fucking movie you want you fucking lacking piecie of shit.
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I'm sorry, are you upset people are talking about a film on a board made for such topics?

That's the attitude that makes directors think that having to explain the "meaning" of their movie indicates it was so complex and nuanced you guise totes

The audience is a factor in any art form; you're allowed a component of arrogance, but believing that the fact that your movie doesn't work is anybody's but your own fault won't take you anywhere

Cool answer.