“Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called ‘The Pledge’: the magician shows you something ordinary; but, of course, it probably isn’t. The second act is called ‘The Turn’: the magician makes this ordinary something do something extraordinary. Now you are looking for the secret, but you won’t find it. That’s why there is a third act called ‘The Prestige’: it’s the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance and you see something shocking you’ve never seen before.”

These words, pronounced with solemn conviction by British actor Michael Caine, introduce Christopher Nolan’s new movie: “The Prestige.” Set in turn-of-the-century England, the film follows the battle for supremacy between two magicians: Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Borden (Christian Bale). In a world where magicians are the most popular and grand of public entertainments, where love is entangled with betrayal, tragedy forever links the two rivals, and nothing seems to get in the way of their mutual obsession. “In an era before television and radio, just at the very beginning of cinema, magicians were very much larger figures in the entertainment world than they are now,” says co-writer/director Nolan. “They were the rock stars of their day. Magic still exists today, and always will, but it was much bigger then. It took to the popular culture’s consciousness and imagination, and for that reason the stakes of the story become much higher than if it were set in the contemporary world, because of the element of fame, fortune and professional rivalry between magicians. It was also a time of massive technological change, and the story deals with the birth of the modern scientific era in the postindustrial revolution. So, it was a pretty extraordinary era, actually, in terms of intellectual adventure and scientific experimentation. All of these things that also drew me to the novel made it the ideal time to be addressing the issue of magic versus science.”
The story revolves around this conflict, where the lines that delimit reality and fiction, scientific or supernatural, are not clear. As the filmmaker behind the acclaimed films “Memento” and “Batman Begins” explains: “The film has elements of what I suppose could be considered supernatural, but it is more about the relationship between new science and magic. When scientific discoveries are new, and the film takes place soon after the birth of electricity, for example, there are a lot of new and exciting things going on in the world of science at the time that would be seen as supernatural, but are not really. So, it is also perhaps about science fiction, about the science of tomorrow, in a way.”

Working with the science of today is Christopher Nolan, who we met in the sound editing room of “The Prestige”, meticulously revising and trying to enhance each frame of his film: “We have had a lot of fun making it, but I think the actual process we are doing now, which is the sound mixing, is generally one of the most fun parts of filmmaking for me, because basically you have made the film at this point and what we are now doing is simply trying to improve it. So, it is quite an enjoyable process, polishing what you have done.” A delicate and fundamental process, that shows how closely involved Nolan is with his movies from beginning to end, from the writing to the last stages of postproduction. One wonders if it is hard to finally let go of the film: “It is a little bit hard, but you know when you have reached the point where you are just fiddling with the film and not improving it. You know when it happens and at that point you are finished with it, though a film isn’t really finished until the audience sees it, because you don’t make them for yourself.”

Based on Christopher Priest’s book, Nolan’s film is a “pretty free and loose adaptation of a tremendously exciting book that had many ideas, more than you can get into a screenplay,” he describes. “The challenge really was to try to keep the essence of what we thought were the most interesting elements of a large book, with a lot going on. I think Priest liked the screenplay, and we got his blessing, but he understood that we had to take some liberties in order to make it work as a film.”

“The Prestige” reunites Christopher Nolan with Christian Bale and Michael Caine, both of whom he directed in “Batman Begins”. “Christian and Michael came in quite late in the day,” admits Nolan. “Originally we were going to make this film before ‘Batman Begins’, with a different cast, and then realized that we didn’t have enough time to do it justice, so we put it off. Christian found out about it and read the script, called me up and said he was interested in playing the magician Alfred Borden, which seemed exactly right. In the case of Michael Caine, his character feels like it was written for him; but the truth is that it wasn’t, rather years before I met him. But it fits him like a glove.”
Nolan, on the contrary, had never worked with Hugh Jackman before: “Hugh came on board before Christian, actually. He just seemed to embody exactly the balance we needed between having that sense of integrity of the classic leading man and this great authentic stage showmanship that the magician Rupert Angier has to have. As opposed to Christian’s character, he has a wonderful understanding of the interaction between performer and live audience, which Hugh actually has. And he also has great depths as an actor that I think hadn’t really been explored.”

In the case of music icon David Bowie, who had a song in “Memento”, the British filmmaker took it upon himself to convince his admired musician/actor to accept a small but key role – that of scientist / electrical pioneer Nikolai Tesla. “He was the only guy I ever had in mind to play Tesla,” says Nolan. “His function is small, but very important, and he really has an extraordinarily charismatic and noticeable presence. I wanted someone who wasn’t a movie star. So, I flew out to New York to meet him and told him that he had to do it, that I didn’t have anyone else in mind who could play his role the way I saw it, and he responded immediately. David is pretty clear on what he does and doesn’t want to do.”

“The Prestige” delves into the mysteries of illusion, a field that has fascinated him throughout his life. “What is interesting is that once you understand more about how tricks are constructed, and how the methods work, you will go see magicians and be able to figure out a certain amount of what they do,” says the director. “But what that means is that it is even more impressive when they actually do something you can’t figure out, because you are baffled. There is real joy to being fooled in that way, when you think you know how things are done. It is actually more fun.”

THE PRESTIGE commences in Australia November 16