Instantly one of my favourite Hollywood movies.
There are so many layers, so many ways to interpret events that it’s beautiful. Great acting, wonderful direction. It really goes into how magicians think and how things are from their end. It’s a great movie for everyone, but if you do magic, you can relate more to it. It doesn’t make me say, “hah, that’s not what magicians go through”.
Two quotes really stand out for me during the movie:
“Never show anyone. They’ll beg you and flatter you for the secret, but as soon as you give it up, you’ll be nothing to them. You understand? Nothing. The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything.”
I half agree with this. Some people are just after the secret and then the magic means nothing to them. That sucks. Would you be disappointed if you saw the notes to Bach’s music? I think the secrets elevate the art. The secrets should not make the magic. Magic is about the experience, not just about the actions.
I loved this quote from the movie:
You never understood, why we did this. The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It’s miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you..then you got to see something really special.. you really don’t know?..it was..it was the look on their faces..
ah… the look on their faces, the look in their eyes… magic…