frankde-jong
Joined Aug 2012
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At the beginning of the movie a voiceover (Michael Caine) tells us that a magical trick has three phases. In phase 1 (the pledge) the magician introduces the object to us. In phase 2 (the turn) something happens to the object. It for example disappears. The hardest is however phase 3 (the prestige) in which the object re-appears or regains its original form. In "The prestige" the film copies this structure.
Christopher Nolan made "The prestige" (2006) in between "Batman begins" (2005) and "The Dark Knight" (2008), the first two episodes of his Batman trilogy. The film doesn't feel as an in between movie at all. The images are very beautiful and the story is, as often with Nolan ("Memento" (2000)), complicated. This is even true as the story is told in chronological order, but (again like "Memento") it is not.
However beautiful the images, hoewever complicated the story and however numerous the plottwists, the theme of the movie is meager in my opinion. It is all about the bitter rivalry between two magicians: Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman). The rivalry goes as far that both men try to steal each others trick and disturb each others performances.
The film is quite explicit about the origin of the rivalry. At the beginning of the film both are assistents of an older magician, sitting in the audience and performing as fake volunteers. One night Borden ties the stage assistent too tightly. She can't escape and dies during the performance. This stage assistent turns out te be the wife of Angier.
The film is however much less explicit about the root cause of the rivalry. Is it women, as the origin indicates, or is it professional pride? During the film there is at least one instance that both magicians are vying for the favors of the same woman. On the other hand both have reasons to be professional jealous on the other: Borden is the better technician, Angier the better showman.
Apart from the two main actors Michael Caine plays a character designing gadgets for magicians. As always his performance is excellent. Remarkably enough he plays a similar character in the Batman trilogy.
Scarlett Johansson plays a stage assistent. Her outfit is a little bit too piquant. On the other hand at one point in the movie a remark is made that the best instrument a magician has to distract the attention of the audience is a sexy assistent. There may be some truth in that.
Christopher Nolan made "The prestige" (2006) in between "Batman begins" (2005) and "The Dark Knight" (2008), the first two episodes of his Batman trilogy. The film doesn't feel as an in between movie at all. The images are very beautiful and the story is, as often with Nolan ("Memento" (2000)), complicated. This is even true as the story is told in chronological order, but (again like "Memento") it is not.
However beautiful the images, hoewever complicated the story and however numerous the plottwists, the theme of the movie is meager in my opinion. It is all about the bitter rivalry between two magicians: Alfred Borden (Christian Bale) and Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman). The rivalry goes as far that both men try to steal each others trick and disturb each others performances.
The film is quite explicit about the origin of the rivalry. At the beginning of the film both are assistents of an older magician, sitting in the audience and performing as fake volunteers. One night Borden ties the stage assistent too tightly. She can't escape and dies during the performance. This stage assistent turns out te be the wife of Angier.
The film is however much less explicit about the root cause of the rivalry. Is it women, as the origin indicates, or is it professional pride? During the film there is at least one instance that both magicians are vying for the favors of the same woman. On the other hand both have reasons to be professional jealous on the other: Borden is the better technician, Angier the better showman.
Apart from the two main actors Michael Caine plays a character designing gadgets for magicians. As always his performance is excellent. Remarkably enough he plays a similar character in the Batman trilogy.
Scarlett Johansson plays a stage assistent. Her outfit is a little bit too piquant. On the other hand at one point in the movie a remark is made that the best instrument a magician has to distract the attention of the audience is a sexy assistent. There may be some truth in that.
In honor of their new film "Jeunes mères" (2025) the arthouse streaming service PICL programmed a retrospective of the oeuvre of the Dardenne brothers. In my opinion their best period ranged from 1996 ("La promesse") to 2005 ("L'enfant"). The retrospective contains more recent films, however still worth watching.
"Le gamin au vélo" (2011) shows us a wounded boy (Cyril played magnificently by Thomas Doret) of around 11 years old. He has been abandoned by his father, but believes this was just a mistake. He is looking ferociously for his father and when he finally founds him it leads to a heartbreaking scene. In this scene Cyril is very happy thinking he is helping his father with his work in the kitchen of a restaurant while his father is visibly uncomfortable (for everyone to see except for Cyril) thinking only about getting rid of his son as quickly as possible.
By the way the father is played by Jérémie Renier, who played an adolescent father trying to sell his own baby in "L 'enfant" (2005)
Nevertheless "Le gamin au vélo" is a rather optimistic picture according to the standards of the Dardenne brothers. Situated in the summer season the city of Liège (the favorite production location of the Dardenne brothers) looks more friendly. Far more important is however the character of Samantha (Cécile de France). Samantha takes an interest in Cyril. He is allowed to live with her first during the weekend and than during the whole week.
The motives of Samanha (living with Cyril is not always easy) are not explained and I think this is done on purpose. This way the altruism of Samantha can be contrasted with the manipulation of gang leader Wes (Egon Di Mateo). Wes is also nice to Cyril, but only in order to recruit him for his gang.
In another heartbreaking scene we see the tiny Cyril on guard with a gigantic baseball bat executing a robbery assignment of Wes. While the first heartbreaking scene illustrated that Cyril does not recognize the fact that his father doesn't love him, this second scene shows that he is (still?) unable to differentiate between the real love of Samantha and the manipulative "love" of Wes.
"Le gamin au vélo" (2011) shows us a wounded boy (Cyril played magnificently by Thomas Doret) of around 11 years old. He has been abandoned by his father, but believes this was just a mistake. He is looking ferociously for his father and when he finally founds him it leads to a heartbreaking scene. In this scene Cyril is very happy thinking he is helping his father with his work in the kitchen of a restaurant while his father is visibly uncomfortable (for everyone to see except for Cyril) thinking only about getting rid of his son as quickly as possible.
By the way the father is played by Jérémie Renier, who played an adolescent father trying to sell his own baby in "L 'enfant" (2005)
Nevertheless "Le gamin au vélo" is a rather optimistic picture according to the standards of the Dardenne brothers. Situated in the summer season the city of Liège (the favorite production location of the Dardenne brothers) looks more friendly. Far more important is however the character of Samantha (Cécile de France). Samantha takes an interest in Cyril. He is allowed to live with her first during the weekend and than during the whole week.
The motives of Samanha (living with Cyril is not always easy) are not explained and I think this is done on purpose. This way the altruism of Samantha can be contrasted with the manipulation of gang leader Wes (Egon Di Mateo). Wes is also nice to Cyril, but only in order to recruit him for his gang.
In another heartbreaking scene we see the tiny Cyril on guard with a gigantic baseball bat executing a robbery assignment of Wes. While the first heartbreaking scene illustrated that Cyril does not recognize the fact that his father doesn't love him, this second scene shows that he is (still?) unable to differentiate between the real love of Samantha and the manipulative "love" of Wes.
Before deciding to watch "Grave of the fireflies" I had some doubts. About a year ago I saw "Spirited away" (2001. Hayao Miyazaki), also a famous Japanese animated movie. To be honest I was rather disappointed.
That didn't happen again with "Graves of the fireflies". The film is about two orphans during the last year of the Second World War in Japan. One of them is a boy around 14 years old (Seita), the other a girl around 5 years old (Setsuko). The film portrays the starvation of the siblings, nobody in their surrounding willing to share some of their own meager rations of food.
The film is adapted from a novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka, who did lose a sister through starvation during the war years. He did suffer a feeling of guilt for a long time and it must be said that it is really heartbreaking to watch the playful Setsuko suffer.
In this respect the film is an animation to be watched by adults as it combines the animation genre with war as a subject. There are other examples of this combination, perhaps the most famous one being "Waltz with Bashir" (2008, Ari Folman). Another Japanese example is "Barfoot gen" (1983, Mori Masaki). This film is about the use of the atomic bomb and contains very graphic images. The images of "Grave of the fireflies" are more tranquil, but nevertheless very moving.
In American animated movies like for example "Bambi" (1942, Walt Disney) there are some tragic moments, but the end is always happy. In "Graves of the fireflies" it isn't.
I recently finished the "Human condition" trilogy (1959 - 1961) by Masaki Kobayashi and the themes of both films have much in common: Japan during the end of the Second World War.
Scarcity of food turning people egocentric Unconditional love
In "The human condition" the unconditional love is between two newly weds. In "Grave of the fireflies" it is between two siblings. In this respect the film has something in common with "Lore" (2012, Cate Shortland). In "Lore" a girl roughly the same age of Seita has to take care of her siblings in imploding Nazi Germany.
Earlier in this review I already said something about the difference between "Graves of the fireflies" and an American animation like "Bambi". There are also differences with respect to design. The comments below are mainly based on a review by Roger Ebert.
The images of "Graves of the fireflies" have something aquarelle like, as if the artist made use of watercolor painting. In American animation movies the colors are usually harder. On top of that director Isao Takahata makes use of a story telling device that we also see regularly in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. By means of in between shots (shots that have little to do with the storyline) the viewer is given the opportunity to think about the previous shot before moving on.
That didn't happen again with "Graves of the fireflies". The film is about two orphans during the last year of the Second World War in Japan. One of them is a boy around 14 years old (Seita), the other a girl around 5 years old (Setsuko). The film portrays the starvation of the siblings, nobody in their surrounding willing to share some of their own meager rations of food.
The film is adapted from a novel of the same name by Akiyuki Nosaka, who did lose a sister through starvation during the war years. He did suffer a feeling of guilt for a long time and it must be said that it is really heartbreaking to watch the playful Setsuko suffer.
In this respect the film is an animation to be watched by adults as it combines the animation genre with war as a subject. There are other examples of this combination, perhaps the most famous one being "Waltz with Bashir" (2008, Ari Folman). Another Japanese example is "Barfoot gen" (1983, Mori Masaki). This film is about the use of the atomic bomb and contains very graphic images. The images of "Grave of the fireflies" are more tranquil, but nevertheless very moving.
In American animated movies like for example "Bambi" (1942, Walt Disney) there are some tragic moments, but the end is always happy. In "Graves of the fireflies" it isn't.
I recently finished the "Human condition" trilogy (1959 - 1961) by Masaki Kobayashi and the themes of both films have much in common: Japan during the end of the Second World War.
Scarcity of food turning people egocentric Unconditional love
In "The human condition" the unconditional love is between two newly weds. In "Grave of the fireflies" it is between two siblings. In this respect the film has something in common with "Lore" (2012, Cate Shortland). In "Lore" a girl roughly the same age of Seita has to take care of her siblings in imploding Nazi Germany.
Earlier in this review I already said something about the difference between "Graves of the fireflies" and an American animation like "Bambi". There are also differences with respect to design. The comments below are mainly based on a review by Roger Ebert.
The images of "Graves of the fireflies" have something aquarelle like, as if the artist made use of watercolor painting. In American animation movies the colors are usually harder. On top of that director Isao Takahata makes use of a story telling device that we also see regularly in the films of Yasujiro Ozu. By means of in between shots (shots that have little to do with the storyline) the viewer is given the opportunity to think about the previous shot before moving on.