Introduction: Every magic show has three steps: "replacing reality with fiction", "stealing the sky for the day", and "turning decay into magic"
The greatest magician in "Deadly Magic" is the director Christopher Nolan, and the director's exquisite narrative structure and psychological presentation of the characters are like a magic show in itself. Revenge and desire is the enduring motif of Nolan's films, in "Deadly Magic", because of the accident of the magic show, resulting in the death of the beloved wife of his former friend Angel, Angel and Berger have parted ways, in the hatred and desire for fame and fortune, the two continue to viciously compete, friendship and morality are left behind, and a bloody case is quietly brewing.
In Introduction to Psychoanalysis, Freud mentions that cinema is like a cultural form that corresponds directly to psychoanalysis. In fact, from the beginning of the creation of the film work, the screenwriter began to give the characters rich psychological changes in the text to enrich the character image and promote the development of the plot, after the joint portrayal of the director and the actors, the psychological performance of the protagonist will play a great role in the process of plot expression and the audience experience.
One. Well-planned murderers
In Deadly Magic, Angel makes a multifaceted "suicidal" attempt to overtake and defeat Bourdain in revenge, according to Freud: the eternal position of the individual in a struggle, on the one hand, the strong unconscious desire for pleasure at all costs, and on the other hand, under the constraints of reason and socialization, the correction and abandonment of certain excessive demands for pleasure to adapt to the pragmatic norms of self-preservation. In the film, the narrative technique of cross-montage is used to narrate three events that occurred at different times, pushing the murder to a climax. Stitching together the first plot will produce a complete story: Angel and Bourdain learn the beautiful days of magic performance, during which the two constantly learn and discuss the magic show, adhere to their own magic performance style, and Angel has the company of his lover, and Burdon has a favorite girl. It wasn't until "Bertone" tied the knot of the Blue Knot to Julia's death magic show that the good days came to an end. At this moment, the seeds of murder have been quietly planted.
The second complete splicing tells the story of a series of magic competitions in which Burdon and Angel return to the stage after Julia's death and then quit the magic stage. Burdon had a warm little home and began to perform on a small stage in order to make a living. Angel and Curt are also regrouping. Angel sees Burden's happy family of three on the street while he loses his wife, the hatred continues to intensify, the murder plan has actually sprouted, the two have begun to compete for evil deeds, the two magicians are immersed in the study of new magic techniques, performing in a larger theater, attracting more audiences to defeat the opponent, at this time the two are not only pursuing the pleasure of defeating each other's victory, but also the desire to win the first magician, and the magic concept that they insisted on at the beginning. The third stage is the murder stage, in which Angel uses magic shows to frame Bourdain as his own murderer by reasonable and lawful means, completing a well-planned perfect crime, while In prison Bourdain is revising and abandoning certain pleas of pleasure to suit the pragmatic norms of self-preservation. Bertone handed over his favorite magic secret, and after recognizing his adopted daughter's professor as Angel, he begged Angel and the guards to spare him who had been wronged, even if this pragmatic principle did not play any role and did not save him.
Two. Accomplice of the murderer
The accomplices of the murderers were spectators who watched magic shows and the mechanical development of the Industrial Revolution. In Lacan's theory, Lacan's emphasis on an exciting visual experience, a relation to the image that appears on the first reflective surface, leads people to the visual dimension of viewing the film itself. On the other hand, it emphasizes the importance of knowledge, or reinforces the self-deceptive illusionary basis of subjective knowledge. In Deadly Magic, Bourdain says to Sarah's nephew: They will beg you, flatter you, and once you say it, there is no use value. This sentence is very intuitive to tell the magician's control of the audience's psychology, the audience pursues mystery, curiosity, and even to the point of cruelty, especially in Bourdain's performance of "freehand bullet" magic, Angel shot At Bourden with a real bullet, the audience first looked at Angel in amazement, and then laughed at each other, in the pursuit of excitement at the same time, the magician's pain brings the audience not concern and worry but pleasure.
The film ends with "No one cares about the disappearing people, the audience knows the truth, the reality is cruel and tragic, but if you can fool them, even if it's only for a second, you can amaze them." Because of the audience's constant visual pursuit of magic shows, they are no longer satisfied with watching the tricks of the bird and the goldfish, but to pursue the application of various technologies after the Industrial Revolution to a grander performance in magic shows, but the exquisite water tank has a mechanism of true and false locks, visual spectacles of the current, these industrial technologies bring visual stimulation but also cause tragic events, the death of Angela's stand-in and Angela herself suffered the blow of electricity. In order to pursue the strongest magic and spend a lot of money to buy this machine, in order to suppress Bolton's gradual slave to science and technology, without making people think about whether the audience's enthusiasm for visual wonders and industrial technology is the beginning of progress or the beginning of sadness.
Third, equal opponents
From friend to enemy to killer, Bolton and Angel are based on the psychology of the two knowing each other well. Family backgrounds, different perceptions of magic, and talent are all catalysts for events. The plot is arranged according to the cognitive structure of binary opposition, and finally the unbalanced mentality they all drill into the trap they set, in the balance and imbalance: Angel in order to see the secret of each other's magic, sent his partner to be a spy, even if Bolton fell in love with the spy, he was also very rational and understood the other party's purpose, and used his diary as bait to lure Angel to the United States step by step, Andon himself did not expect that this guidance made Angel's magic become a turning point in his fate. And Angel's search for the best stage, the biggest impact is that he understands that Bolton will come, see the incredible magic will definitely go behind the scenes to find the truth, so as to legitimately use legal means to murder Bolton. But Angel did not understand that Bolton had twin brothers, and in the end there was no way to retreat. What magic constructs is originally the antagonistic relationship between the illusory world and the real world, and the meaning of the simultaneous existence of the equal male protagonist is to constantly maintain and break this opposition, and to continuously develop and evolve magic.
Magic is like life, there are sacrifices to gain the audience, in order to obtain fame and wealth, and magic itself is multiple desires, success is also magic, failure is also magic.