The Prestige

The Prestige

By KaijuFMTV & Film
Download on the App Store

The Prestige episodes

  • 4.2 - JIROKICHI THE RAT (1931) and Editing

    Our next film in Season 4 is 1931’s JIROKICHI THE RAT, the second in our chronological journey through a century of martial arts films. Sam’s a little luke-warm to start with, but is won round in the end — via discussions of cinematic archetypes, innovative camera techniques, and what it means to be a samurai.

    Next Week

    The next film we take on is the directorial debut of an auteur we featured on the podcast last year, Akira Kurosawa: SANSHIRO SUGATA (1943). Watch it through the BFI Player/Amazon, here: www.amazon.co.uk/Sanshiro-Sugata-Denjiro-Okochi/dp/B07116L3MQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1548627698&sr=8-2&keywords=sanshiro+sugata

    This Week’s Media

    IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE (2016): Ti West, Ethan Hawke, Taissa Farmiga
    LES MISERABLES (2018): Tom Shankland, Adeel Akhtar, David Oyelowo

    Recommendations

    RONIN (1998): John Frankenheimer, Robert De Niro, Jean Reno
    ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981): John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef
    RASHOMON (1950): Akira Kurosawa, Toshiro Mifune, Machiko Kyō
    BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969): George Roy Hill, Paul Newman, Robert Redford

    Footnotes

    First, we should link to an explanation of so-called ‘tendency’ films, for which the director (Daisuke Itō) was famous at the time: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendency_film. This is a good book on the various changes in Japanese cinema around the time that OROCHI and JIROKICHI THE RAT were made, and the cultural aftermath of these: books.google.co.uk/books/about/A_Hundred_Years_of_Japanese_Film.html?id=s7-_Gon5-a0C&redir_esc=y. On the innovative use of camera movement in films, this is a good article: www.filmcomment.com/article/game-changers-camera-movement. Finally, this is an engaging piece about the idea of ‘the hero’s journey’, which Rob mentions this week (but which, actually, is a trope these films seem to undercut!): venngage.com/blog/heros-journey.

    27 min
  • 4.1 - OROCHI and Futility

    We kick off season 4 — and our chronological tour through martial arts cinema — with the 1925 film OROCHI. After some glowing reviews of the film, we talk about the number of ways in which it feels like a very modern piece of cinema: from some of the gender politics, to the stunning choreography of some of its fight scenes, and its almost nihilistic overall message.

    Next Week

    The next in our series of martial arts films, and the last silent movie for this genre, is the 1931 film whose English title is JIROKICHI THE RAT.

    This Week’s Media

    30 ROCK (2006—13): Tina Fey, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski

    VENOM (2018): Ruben Fleischer, Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams

    SUMMER OF 84 (2018): François Simard, Graham Verchere, Judah Lewis

    Further Watching

    47 RONIN (2013): Carl Rinsch, Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada

    ENTER THE DRAGON (1973): Robert Clouse, Bruce Lee, John Saxon

    HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973): Clint Eastwood, Verna Bloom, Marianna Hill

    MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981): George Miller, Mel Gibson, Harold Baigent

    Footnotes

    For more on the traditions of Japanese cinema with which OROCHI was engaging, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabuki. A reminder that we covered DRUNKEN ANGEL, the 1948 Kurosawa film which certainly owes a debt to this one, in September 2017 (way back in the mists of time): http://www.kaiju.fm/prestige/3-05-drunken-angel-and-disease. This video shows some of the absurdly heightened editing that we see in later martial arts/action films; as Rob discusses, the absence of these techniques from OROCHI is really quite refreshing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRcfHkPDt5I. Finally, it seems appropriate to end an episode on this film, with its especially negative central message, with a note about where Sam thought this narrative was going: https://www.britannica.com/topic/seppuku.

    30 min
  • Best Of 2018

    Sam's List

      • Mary Poppins Returns
        • You Were Never Really Here
          • Black Panther

            • Honorable Mentions

            • Deadpool 2
            • Ladybird

              • Rob's List

                • Bad Times At The El Royale
                  • Blindspotting
                    • Revenge
                      • Black Panther
                        • Ready Player One
                          • Annihilation
                            • Mandy
                              • Sorry To Bother You
                                • Game Night
                                  • Avengers: Infinity War
                                    • 25 min
                                  • Prestige Playoff - Round 1

                                    Our Wonderful Guest:

                                    Movie Morgue: The film autopsy podcast. Two nerds (and guests) review and dissect films new and old. The real treasure, however, is the friendships we made along the way.

                                    https://moviemorgue.simplecast.fm/

                                    twitter.com/MovieMorgueCast
                                    www.facebook.com/MovieMorguePodcast/

                                    Vilna Bashi Treitler's "The Ethnic Project":

                                    https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=12123

                                    1 hr 18 min
                                  • 3.48 - FAMILY PLOT and Reinvention

                                    The final Hitchcock film in our mini-series is his last motion picture, 1976’s FAMILY PLOT. After differing reviews — interesting, given our previous ideas about Hitchcock’s oeuvre — we talk about everything from camp thrillers to how this was nearly an example of slacker cinema, and how this may have been a response to a mid-1970s shift in cinematic output. We also close with something of a retrospective on Hitchcock’s work, and discuss how his previous work allowed him to in some ways reinvent himself in this movie.

                                    Next Week

                                    Our show next week will be the first of our two play-offs, bringing Season 3 to a close: pitting our favourite 30 films (and 2 audience picks) against each other.

                                    This Week’s Media

                                    DEATH OF A SALESMAN (1949, 2018): Arthur Miller; Sarah Frankcom, Don Warrington
                                    HALLOWEEN 4, 5, 6 (1988, 1989, 1995): Dwight H. Little, Dominique Othenin-Girard, Joe Chapelle

                                    Recommendations

                                    ADDAMS FAMILY (TV: 1964–66): David Levy, Carolyn Jones, John Astin
                                    WEST SIDE STORY (film: 1961): Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Natalie Wood
                                    SILENT RUNNING (1972): Douglas Trumbull, Bruce Dern, Cliff Potts
                                    GROSSE POINT BLANK (1997): George Armitage, John Cusack, Minnie Driver

                                    Footnotes

                                    We start this week’s episode — in particularly spoilerish fashion — by discussing the end of the film, which means that this article deserves another look: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall. When talking about the history of 1970s cinema, as Sam does at one point this week, consulting this is a good idea: books.google.co.uk/books?id=DsGTm5DfY1kC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. The reviews for FAMILY PLOT, as Rob says, are pretty good: www.rottentomatoes.com/m/family_plot, www.rogerebert.com/reviews/family-plot-1976, www.imdb.com/title/tt0074512/reviews. And here’s more on the alternative casting choices, as well as other trivia about the film: www.imdb.com/title/tt0074512/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv. Finally, as a conclusion to this month’s films, here are 5 hours of interviews with the director, from various points in his career, dealing with many aspects of his cinematic output: www.openculture.com/2016/09/5-hours-of-free-alfred-hitchcock-interviews-discover-his-theories-of-film-editing-creating-suspense-more.html.

                                    30 min
                                  • 3.47 - VERTIGO and Obsession

                                    Our next Hitchcock film, coming a decade after last week’s offering, is his 1958 hit VERTIGO. After short reviews of the film, we talk about everything from how the movie creates distance in its audience to the creative endeavour evident in the Marvel films (it’s relevant, honest) — and we end with a Rob’sRantTM.

                                    Next Week

                                    The final Hitchcock film this month — and the last in his career — is 1976’s FAMILY PLOT, available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfLiZcDAIdc

                                    This Week’s Media

                                    HALLOWEEN 1, 2, 3 (1978, 1981, 1982): John Carpenter, Rick Rosenthal, Tommy Lee Wallace
                                    DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978): George A. Romero, David Emge, Ken Foree
                                    TASKMASTER (S7): Alex Horne, Greg Davies, Kerry Godliman

                                    Recommendations

                                    SAUL BASS: TITLE CHAMP (2008): Gary Leva, Saul Bass, Martin Scorcese
                                    MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001): David Lynch, Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring
                                    BULLITT (1968): Peter Yates, Steve McQueen, Jacqueline Bisset
                                    NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959): Alfred Hitchcock, Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint

                                    Footnotes

                                    For more on the noir genre of film — that we touch on here — this is a good resource: www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2013/an-amateur-academics-intro-to-film-noir. On cinematic stock characters, as mentioned by Rob, see here: screencraft.org/2017/07/09/99-archetypes-and-stock-characters-screenwriters-can-mold. More information on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents tv shows, that were running at the time of the movie — and while Hitchcock was at the height of his powers — can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock_Presents. There’s more on the ‘dolly zoom’ technique pioneered in the film (incidentally, I should mention here, because we don’t in the episode, that this was the work of Director of Photography Robert Burks) to represent Scottie’s acrophobia here: nofilmschool.com/2014/01/everything-need-know-dolly-zoom and here: boingboing.net/2015/01/26/watch-23-of-the-best-dolly-zoo.html (here’s the video linked to this article, which is well worth a watch: vimeo.com/84548119). Finally, though I can’t track down the full interview, here’s a series of GIFs celebrating Lucy Liu’s particular sort of creative freedom: imgur.com/gallery/MdA04.

                                    31 min
                                  • 3.46 - ROPE and Intensity

                                    The next in our Hitchcock mini-series is his 1948 masterpiece (can you guess whether or not our reviews were positive?) ROPE. We talk about the importance of the script, the marrying of form and function, and what happens when reality meets philosophical thought experiments.

                                    Next Week

                                    Our Hitchcock season reaches its zenith with the 1958 classic VERTIGO, available here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxpEj8i2y7Y.

                                    This Week’s Media

                                    THE GRIP OF FILM (2017): Richard Ayoade
                                    RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION (2012): Paul S.W. Anderson, Milla Jovavich, Michelle Rodriguez

                                    Recommendations

                                    THE SECRET HISTORY (1992): Donna Tartt
                                    ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944): Frank Capra, Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane
                                    HARVEY (1950): Henry Koster, James Stewart, Wallace Ford
                                    IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946): Frank Capra, James Stewart, Donna Reed
                                    STRANGE DAYS (1995): Kathryn Bigelow, Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett

                                    Footnotes

                                    For details on the length of a shot, as outlined by Rob (1000m of film on a reel = approximately 11 minutes), see here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel. Here are a couple of articles on the film as a ‘triumphant experiment in innovative recording techniques’: lwlies.com/articles/rope-alfred-hitchcock-masterpiece and www.nytimes.com/1984/06/03/movies/hitchcock-s-rope-a-stunt-to-behold.html. On function as a necessary part of form in cinema, this is an interesting piece: nomapneeded.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/5-principles-of-film-form — and this, msufilmandarchitecture.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/function-versus-form, although it talks about a film made nearly 20 years later, is also a good read. Finally, this is an introduction to some of the philosophical theories that get perverted by Brandon and Phillip in the film: https://study.com/academy/lesson/nietzsches-bermensch-concept-theory.html.

                                    31 min
                                  • 3.45 - THE PLEASURE GARDEN and Transgression

                                    The first in our final directorial mini-season of Season 3 is Alfred Hitchcock’s debut feature, the 1926 silent film THE PLEASURE GARDEN. After a couple of short reviews, we talk about why this film’s importance outweighs the extent to which it’s ‘a good watch’, representing transgression on-screen, and the way in which the film uses tropes of suspense and mystery without necessarily being a thriller.

                                    Next Week

                                    Our Hitchcock season continues with the 1948 classic ROPE, available on YouTube here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=93Gpm6kLZLk.

                                    This Month's Media

                                    THE NUN (2018): Corin Hardy, Demián Bichir, Taissa Farmiga
                                    JESSICA JONES S2 (2018): Melissa Rosenberg, Kristen Ritter, Rachael Taylor
                                    SUGAR RUSH (2018): Ariel Boles, Hunter March, Candace Nelson
                                    INGLORIOUS BASTERDS (2009): Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz
                                    THE HITMAN’S BODYGUARD (2017): Patrick Hughes, Ryan Reynolds, Samuel L. Jackson
                                    THIS IS GOING TO HURT (2017): Adam Kay

                                    Recommendations

                                    42ND STREET (1933): Lloyd Bacon, Warner Baxter, Bebe Daniels
                                    METROPOLIS (1927): Fritz Lang, Alfred Abel, Brigitte Helm

                                    Footnotes

                                    (Firstly, we should just say that, in discussing transgression in cinema, we don’t mean to refer to the term coined by avant-garde film-maker Nick Zedd in the 1980s to refer to an underground New York film scene. If you’re desperately interested in this, knock yourself out: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Transgression. If not, ignore this.) On the matter of politically progressive cinema, this paper is good: raley.english.ucsb.edu/wp-content/Engl800/MHansen.pdf. For more on the Motion Picture Production Code (more popularly known, given that the president of the MP Association at the time was Will H. Hays, as ‘The Hays Code’), see here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code. The detective story to which Sam refers, in which the solving of the mystery turns on the barking (or not) of a dog, is the Sherlock Holmes tale ‘The Adventure of Silver Blaze’ (1892): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_Silver_Blaze. Finally this week, the director and choreographer to whom Rob refers in the context of backstage musicals is the inimitable Busby Berkeley: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Busby_Berkeley.

                                    Remember to vote for your favourite film to join our end-of-season bracket! http://www.kaiju.fm/bracket/

                                    30 min

                                  About The Prestige

                                  From the publisher's feed

                                  A podcast for cinephiles of all stripes. Join Rob & Sam, two life-long friends, one a veteran of the film industry, the other a Cambridge-educated writer on books, movies and graphic novels. Each…