By all accounts, these two gentleman should be world class magicians because they are world class charlatans; charismatic charmers that can fool any audience into believing what they see, but in the face of the machine, they are the fools. The quest for dominance is so all consuming that each man begins to believe his own lies, and the lies of the other until there is nothing left but delusions of grandeur and the shattered bits of the lives they sacrificed for those delusions.
In case you’re not aware, A Bright Wall in a Dark Room covers excellent films. They provide an answer when the question on everyone’s lips is, “What should we watch tonight?” Recently I found myself skimming their archives to see if they’d covered some of my favorite films and was muchly troubled by the absence of what I believe is Christopher Nolan’s best film to date: The Prestige. I was so troubled by it, in fact, that as I watched the film again just yesterday I thought to myself, “I’m going to request this. I need to request this.” And so it became today and as I mentally prepared my arguments I was surprised to see that my request had come to pass. Was it coincidence? Had I willed it so? Was it meant to be? Questions, pondering… It was all difficult to comprehend.
I’m afraid you must pardon me. It is just very rare to see… real magic.