Saturday, April 5, 2008

The Prestige

Continuity: In one of the earlier scenes of the movie, Alfred and Robert are seen in the dressing room after one of their performances together. Robert puts on a brown vest and crosses the room, and in the next shot he is seen pulling it on over his shoulders once again.

  • Continuity: When Angier puts on his vest he buttons it up while talking to Julia then the shot switches. After it goes back to him he is buttoning up his vest again.

  • Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Borden mentions that a "penny" could be slipped into the barrel of the pistol used for the bullet catch trick. English pennies of this period were substantial and wide, much wider than the barrel of the pistol being used by Borden could accommodate.

  • Continuity: As Angier is walking towards the box in Tesla's empty room, you notice the hotel manager deliberately bring his hands from behind his back to his front. In the next shot, taken from behind, his hands are behind him again.

  • Anachronisms: Angier refers to the trick of sawing a woman in half, but, as Christopher Priest explains in the novel "The Prestige", this trick was only devised in the 1920's, two decades after this story's setting.

  • Continuity: In the scene when Angier first meets Alley, Angier is getting up after being shocked by the fence, and his watch falls out of his pocket. In the next shot, the watch is in his pocket again.

  • Anachronisms: During the magic show where Alfred meets Sarah for the first time, on both sides of the stage there are statues looking exactly like the two guardian statues found in King Tutankhamen's tomb, but the tomb was not discovered until 1922.

  • Continuity: After the double gives the "show" he takes out a drink while Angier is walking up the stairs, then he brings the drink to his side and as the camera angle switches he brings up two hands without the drink.

  • Errors in geography: When Angier is walking up the mountain to Tesla's work area, the trees are wrong. Foliage like that does not grow on the mountains in Colorado. And if it did, there wouldn't be leaves.

  • Continuity: When Borden and Olivia are speaking in Borden's workshop, Borden keeps switching between shots from leaning back with his arms crossed to leaning forward with his hands on the table.



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