Name: 威望：隱藏在眾目睽睽之下。 (The Prestige: Hiding In Plain Sight)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T06:19:15.000Z
Duration: 7 min 38 s

《頂尖對決》：魔力藏在平凡裡

As a filmmaker, Christopher Nolan always wants to walk a fine line.

電影導演諾蘭敘事手法向來精準

If there's one fundamental theme that suffuses his entire filmography

若要說有項主題貫穿他所有作品

那便是，電影除了集體敘事的功能外

can be a hugely  powerful cultural force.

the Inception team bears a strong resemblance to a film crew.

《全面啟動》造夢小組便像是電影拍攝團隊

But interestingly, though a lot of his work

about avoiding metacinematic images in his work.

For example, in the established Batman continuity,

舉例來說，《蝙蝠俠》漫畫裡的布魯斯．韋恩一家人

Bruce Wayne and his parents are out to see

原本外出觀看的是電影《蒙面俠蘇洛》

that incites the Dark Knight's whole saga.

the Waynes are out to the opera "Mefistofele" instead.

「之所以不讓年幼的韋恩看電影，是因為電影裡的人物觀看電影與漫畫人物看電影不同，會對觀眾帶來解構效果，這是我們試圖想避免的。」

his cinema has always been about immersion,

and you're carried along by the narrative momentum.

This is the line that Nolan wants to walk;

he wants to be immersive and metacinematic at the same time.

他想在「沉浸」與「後設」間取得巧妙平衡

In other words, he wants to hide in plain sight.

換句話說，「魔力就藏在平凡裡」

Hiding in plain sight is essentially the subject matter

You could almost call this film meta-metacinematic

你幾乎可說這部片是「後設之王」

in that it functions as a kind of rule book

without seeming deconstructionist to use Nolan's words.

那便是「在解構與沉浸間遊走自如」

The first thing you see is the film title over a mysterious shot

背景是神秘黑色高帽散置於樹林裡頭

The text here is, of course, the title card.

you know that this text also has a literal function,

because these hats are the prestige of the prestige itself.

因為後頭的黑帽，正是片中「化腐朽為神奇」的體現

It's the key to understanding the tricks of this film,

and this is echoed in the second shot as well,

with bird cages full of identical canaries.

鳥籠裡的金絲雀，每隻看來都極為相仿

From here, Michael Caine's character goes on to describe

接著，米高．肯恩飾演的角色開始敘說起

"Every magic trick consists of three parts or acts:"

The pledge, the turn and finally, the prestige.

以虛代實、偷天換日，以及化腐朽為神奇

The sequence carefully sets up the film's own pledges,

分別由休傑克曼與克里斯汀貝爾飾演

played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman, respectively,

導演慢慢地建立起本片「以虛代實」的招數

illustrating its method through Michael Caine's voice-over

同時透過米高肯恩變魔術給小女孩看的口白

But the film is playing its own tricks here, through editing.

但本片卻透過剪輯手法施展魔力

someone commenting on the events being shown

電影口白通常是某人敘說先前情節

it cuts to the courtroom scene of Borden's murder trial

as if Michael Caine's whole explanation was testimony.

that we learn that the bird trick with the girl

原來一開始小女孩觀看的金絲雀消失魔術

is chronologically the last moment in the film.

between the voice-over and the scene under it.

And this kind of displacement is the key mechanism

that moves its object through time and space instantaneously.

This is exactly what all film editing does.

Most of editing cuts between short distances and continuous times,

大多數的剪輯手法，連接的場景空間相近

But that same simple cut can traverse great distances also

但這樣簡單的剪輯手法，卻也能穿越距離藩籬

and great lengths of time in either direction.

Nolan has described learning the power of this

by watching Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line",

他在觀看泰倫斯·馬利克執導的《紅色警戒》後，體驗到這手法威力無窮

全片看不到模糊、淡出或波紋技法痕跡

and the powerful effect this can have on a viewer.

"The Prestige" exploits this power to the extreme,

諾蘭在《頂尖對決》將這種技法發揮到淋漓盡致

cutting between multiple different nested memories.

Nolan sets up this device with Borden and Angier's journals.

他先以吉爾與波登閱讀日記建立起這種手法

he cuts between the narratives, at will, and without warning.

如此一來，《頂尖對決》體現電影獨樹一格的能力

without compromising the audience's suspended disbelief.