Memento and the Prestige

The films ‘Memento’ (2000) and ‘The Prestige’ (2006) are both directed by Christopher Nolan. In each of the films Nolan seeks to disorientate the audience through deception in spectatorship. One way he achieves this is through narrative, in which characters, who ultimately, we learn are not as they appear to be, manipulate each other. This report will discuss and compare, by way of close viewing , a scene from each film in order to show Nolan’s over-arching theme of deception in spectatorship The scenes I will discuss are: in, ‘Memento’ when, Natalie manipulates Leonard into killing Dodd; and in ‘The Prestige’, the exposition in which Borden reveals he has a twin and Angier reveals he was cloned.

The character of Natalie is a good example of how Nolan develops the idea of deception in spectatorship in ‘Memento’. First she seems to want to help Leonard in finding killer of his wife, but later in the film she manipulates Leonard to serve herself. We see this when Natalie tries to manipulate Leonard to protect her from Dodd who is a drug dealer. Nolan uses visual and verbal techniques to create deception in spectatorship by showing Leonard as victim. Nolan used lots of close-ups and over-the-shoulder shots, also he used dialogues and narrative voice over to show us how Natalie manipulates Leonard and show Leonard’s desperation. For example, Nolan uses a close-up of Natalie’s hand as she hides all of the pens in her house at beginning of the scene. The purpose of hiding the pens is Leonard can’t write anything about their conversation so Natalie can use Leonard to kill Dodd. At the end of scene Nolan uses narrative voice over Leonard searches for a pen; ‘Find a pen, write it down, keep it in mind, write down what happened’. The combination of visual and verbal techniques, which is close-up and narrative voice over show how Natalie is deliberately stopping Leonard from remembering their conversation to manipulate him and how Leonard is a desperate as victim. In middle of the scene Nolan uses cinemaphotography and dialogue to show Natalie’s deception and Leonard’s confusion.  Natalie asks Leonard to kill Dodd for her, when he refuses she starts abusing him and insulting his dead wife to get him angry so he will punch her so she can use her injury as evidence of Dodd’s abuse of her, again tricking Leonard. Nolan uses close-ups of Leonard’s face to show his confusion and anger at Natalie’s unexpected behaviour. The audience is confused and angry too because we thought Natalie was a good character. Natalie said to Leonard “I’m gonna use you.” She can reveal her plan to Leonard because she knows he won’t be able to remember because of his condition. When Leonard punches Natalie we see a mid-shot of her smiling with a cut lip and she tells him “I will see you soon”. Natalie goes to her car and waits a few minutes then returns to the house telling Leonard that Dodd has beaten her. This combination of shots and dialogue shows how Natalie manipulate Leonard to kill Dodd and how defenceless Leonard is. However, there is another level of deception in spectatorship going on in the film. As the film goes on the viewer begins to understand that Leonard is also the victim of his own deceit, he chooses what remember so he doesn’t have to face truth that he accidently killed his wife by over dosing her with insulin. So in our role as spectators the viewers are also deceived by Leonard for much of film. Nolan achieves his purpose of deception in spectatorship on many levels and forces the audience to view the film actively to gain meaning and understanding

In ‘The Prestige’, Nolan uses the world of magic to explore the theme of deception in spectatorship. As in ‘Memento’ Nolan uses non-linear narrative and characters deceived and manipulate each other, themselves and the audience. In the film’s climax, the two main characters, Borden and Angier challenge each other and the key deceptions in the film are revealed to the audience. The director’s purpose in the scene is explaining to the audience how both Borden and Angier have used doubles to deceive them in different ways and for different reasons. In the film’s climax, Bordon confronts Angier in the abandoned theatre, this is symbol of Angier’s broken dream of being the world greatest magician. He is stuck in a nightmare of duplicating him every time he does the transported man trick. Nolan uses a high angle shot to show Borden is powerful and right in taking revenge on Angier. The director also uses a low angle shot to show Angier is weak and deserves his destiny. In this scene, Nolan uses flash back to show how Borden and Angier manage their teleportation magic; Borden and his brother pretend to be the same person while Angier uses the cloning machine to duplicate himself. Nolan also uses dialogue to describe to explain the idea of deception in spectatorship. For example, Fallon (Borden’s brother) said before he was hanged “Abracadabra” this dialogue shows that he sacrificed his life for Borden and magic. Also, Borden explains “we were both Fallon, and we were both Borden”, and that there was “Nothing easy about two men sharing one life” this dialogue reveals how the audience have been deceived throughout the film by Borden and his brother. However, rather than feel sympathy for Borden the audience understand how he has manipulated other characters such as his wife who kills herself and Olivia and his daughter who never knows her real father. “Sacrifice is the price of the good trick” says Borden but as an audience we find this hard to agree with because lots of people being used and hurt. Borden’s deceits all seem to be aimed to help himself. In contrast up until this scene the audience has been manipulated by the director to think Angier is a bad guy. However, through Angier’s dialogue “I’ve made sacrifices… it takes everything”, we understand that he too has lost everything because of his obsession with becoming the greatest magician. The director combined sad background music and low-key lighting to create a gloomy mood as Angier’s explains why he did all the extreme things “You never understood, did you? Why we did this? The audience knows the truth that the world is simple. Miserable solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, you could make them wonder. They get to see something very special… You really don’t know? It was the look on their faces.” Angier’s explanation helps the audience understand that his aims were noble and selfless. This shows how the audience have been deceived throughout the film about Angier’s motives. It is Angier who is the more admirable character.

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