Christopher Nolan: A filmmaker with soul

Staying challenged
His new picture, “The Prestige,” is another example of a director feeling his oats who is hell-bent on keeping himself artistically challenged and commercially viable at the same time. Adapted from a novel by Christopher Priest and set in London around the turn of the century, it’s about two rival magicians, Rupert (Hugh Jackman) and Alfred (Bale), who have jousted for years, and the competition between them becomes more and more intense as they continually try to one-up each other.

While Nolan has reverence for well-told stories with fully developed characters, it’s also clear that he’s a visual stylist who enjoys working on large canvases. An attraction to such material can often be fatal to a reckless director, or one who takes on such projects for the wrong reasons. In this case, it’s a case of Nolan pursuing a career path that seems smooth, easy and natural.

His next effort after this? Sequel-land. He’s set to deliver another entry in the “Batman” series, this one titled “The Dark Knight.” When a director reaches a certain stratosphere in Hollywood, he usually avoids sequels like models avoid fried foods. In Nolan’s case, there’s no taboos, only challenges to be met.

Incidentally, “the prestige” is an old-fashioned magicians’ term that refers to the desired outcome of a magic act. So far, it might also apply to Christopher Nolan’s career.

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