Archive for the ‘TV and Media’ Category

Chris Nolan’s new film (released 16th July – the same day as Eyes Wide Shut eleven years ago and I have no idea why I remember that) has me all excited in an Avatar kind of way. Its about the subconscious, dreams, and stealing ideas from peoples heads – a great excuse for some great surrealism and psychological trickery. Nolan is brilliant at this kind of stuff (e.g. The Prestige, Memento and Insomnia). The human mind is an interesting place, a good place to set a film. The only other ones I can think of are Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Jacobs Ladder.

Update: I’ve now seen it twice, and it didn’t disappoint. In fact I appreciated it more the second time around, being able to enjoy the subtleties rather than struggling to grasp what was really going on. Its one of the most intelligent films I’ve ever seen – if you haven’t seen it yet, its well worth seeing.

IF YOU’VE SEEN THE SHOW then please leave your analysis, ideas, observations, reviews etc in the forum / blog bit below, ESPECIALLY if you were chosen for anything!!

THE BELOW COMMENTS CONTAIN SPOILERS so please don’t read them unless you enjoy indulging in the fun of trying to analyse/figure out the tricks.

My Review of the show:
Personally, Derren’s recent work has been a bit too tricksy for my liking – the frenetic running about with clipboards, envelopes, pens etc just screams ‘mentalism’ and doesn’t capture the psychological intrigue of his earlier work. In fact, I would go as far to say that Derren has broken the rule he spelled out in Pure Effect, the need to convince the audience of the ‘process’ you are pretending to use for that sense of wonder. E.g. the first stage show I saw felt full of wonder, as if the whole audience was together with it. Ever since Something Wicked This Way Comes, I don’t think “wow – he’s reading their body language!” I just think “oh – its a trick”.

The first half of Enigma was tricksy, the usual running around reminding the audience of whats happening, frisbees, marker pens, and then gasps of delight as various things are turned around to reveal something. As well as the virtuoso showmanship (not just the usual charismatic presentation but the acting, deception etc) I love the humour of these shows, in fact they could be classed more accurately as comedy magic than psychological magic. Many moments had me laughing out loud. The tricksy-tricksy was redeemed in the second half, where Derren surprised the hell out of me by using genuine hypnosis (as opposed to the pseudo ‘bow your head, look hypnotised and write something on this clipboard that I can use as a trick’ hypnosis that hes used in stageshows before.) Surprising because he hasn’t done it on stage before (at least to this extent) and also because there are laws in Britain about public hypnosis acts that he somehow sidestepped. A spirit cabinet routine similar to seance was excellent as live entertainment, very visual and interesting, I still have no idea how it works. The problem here is that Derren’s rushing about strips it of the potential wonder and intrigue it could have had – had he framed it more patiently, it would have been a lot more eerie. On the whole though, although slightly flawed and annoyingly tricksy in places, its very funny and interesting enough to make it worthwhile.

Blessed are Fox Broadcasting for knocking out another belter of a show. Lie to Me stars Tim Roth (Mr Orange in Reservoir Dogs, an excellent British actor) and follows the endlessly interesting day job of an expert in body language and lie detection. Puzzles are solved in a format similar to CSI, your first impressions of a situation gradually evolve during an episode to reveal an unpredictable twist of events. Its based on the work of Paul Ekman, whose books Telling Lies and Emotions Revealed are recommended for anyone interested in observational psychology. I love this show – not quite as much as Dexter but its getting there.

Derren’s Evening Of Wonders show was on C4 last night. Having seen it twice live (Plymouth and Torquay), and subsequently deciphered it to death on a little-known corner of the internet, it was interesting watching it again. The thing that always interested me most about Derren was the psychological implications of his work, e.g. The Heist had me thinking all about where to draw the line between influence and responsibility with regards to crime, Messiah had me thinking about about the fragility and self-deceptive nature of belief systems. The early stuff, those first shows on C4 which were edited into the first DVD Inside Your Mind, were just so intriguing and inspiring, and I think really did influence me into studying far more about the mind (and suggestibility).

But recently, the move into more solid, out-and-out trickery has left me feeling a little cold and conned, and not as interested as I used to be. There is less of the psychology and more of the tricksy, although the overall psychology of crafting an impression, lying, misdirection etc is still great fun and there is plenty of it in the show.

It also contains one of my favourite ever Derren moments – involving a gorilla – but I wouldn’t want to ruin it if you’ve yet to see it.