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Not many things work equally well as both book and film, but The Prestige is one
I'm a bit late to the party with this one, but recently I finally got around to watching The Prestige. Some might find the the film ultimately ridiculous, but I was rapt throughout - I honestly think it's one of the best films I've seen in years, an absorbing account of obsession and rivalry that corkscrews out of control. To give a quick precis, it's about two Edwardian magicians, set into opposition by tragedy, whose need to know the other's secrets and perform the best illusions leads to all manner of unimaginable sacrifice. But having seen the film - and even here, after giving a spoiler warning, I still can't bring myself to write down the specific events and twists that make the film itself a masterful legerdemain played on the viewer - I went back to read Christopher Priest's original novel for the first time. It's obviously similar, but at the same time totally different, and what's fascinating is how director Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan changed the book to make the film work. The book itself is deeper - the framing device, missing from the movie, dealing with the modern-day relatives of Borden and Angier, lends a sucker-punch ending and further deepens the theme of twins and of lives shared or halved - but key events and devices are much-changed (not least the device Tesla builds for Angier - it has a very different effect in the film).
The epistolary nature of the book – it's presented as excerpts from Borden and Angier's journals - presents events from both points of view (and Priest has a reputation in his works for playing around with the notion of the unreliable narrator). Some of the surprises – the nature of Borden's deceit, for instance – are revealed with less dramatic impact in the book than the film, and the Nolans played up the all-consuming, bitter rivalry for the cinema. It appears to be less all-consuming, less obsessive in the novel, and peripheral characters, such as Angier's wife, servants and children, appear to accept certain events with quite astonishing magnanimity. (I'm thinking here specifically of the ending of the book, and Angier's terrible half-life after Borden sabotages his performance by unplugging Tesla's machine).
I saw the film first, then read the book, and found both works to be almost complementary pieces. The film, to me, is the most effective piece, necessarily shallower but more dramatic, with a magnificent structure that lays out all the pieces of the puzzle from the very first shot (watching it a second time is equally as rewarding as the first, absorbing, surprising viewing). The book is more detailed, more sprawling, encompassing a longer time frame, but the themes of both – the themes of sacrifice, and obsession, and duality – are the same. Whether you read or watch The Prestige, the companion piece offers light and shade distinct from its partner, and I urge to devour both book and film for yourselves.
Jes Bickham May 02, 2007, 04:30:49
