In 2013, the thriller movie Now You See Me, about a group of thieving illusionists, was released. The film featured an all-star cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman, among them. Year after year, movies about illusionists and magic continue to capture audiences' imaginations. If you’re looking for magicians in movies, Magicians probably has more than any other film. Magicians is a British film, largely based around magic and magic conventions in the UK. The leads are from the UK sitcom, The Peep Show. David Mitchell and Robert Webb play magicians Karl and Henry who want to take part in a magic competition. Last summer I had a fun experiment with my family. We started watching the movies that won the Academy Awards for best picture.

When I asked Pico Iyer, a writer with a deep respect and reverence for cinema, what he felt about literature’s relationship to movies, he said: “It’s no surprise to me that those writers who hold us most are often the ones — I think of Raymond Chandler, Graham Greene, Kazuo Ishiguro — who have clearly learned from the leanness and wordlessness of movies. Movies have given us a new way to lose ourselves, and our artists a new, crafty, universal and post-verbal way to tell a story.” Yes, yes, yes — exactly. Pico’s eloquence comes to my rescue: these are the very things I have perhaps been fumbling to say about what movies do for us.Laurence Olivier was offered the role of the agent but was unable to do it, and then Burgess Meredith was cast. [5] Meredith landed the role after walking into the 21 Club one night when Levine was there – Levine cast him on the spot. Meredith modelled his performance on the agent Swifty Lazar, even shaving his head to look like Lazar. "I tried to get his cool, understated manner, his sharp clothes, and most of all, his way of speaking softly so that you've got to lean over to hear what he's saying", said Meredith. [7] Goldman later wrote about the film that "Burgess Meredith was perfect and Tony Hopkins...was so wonderful here. But running stride for stride with him was Miss Olsson. I think Ann-Margret is the least appreciated emotional actress anywhere." [8] Less than two years after Tyler's book was published, Billy Wilder was making Sunset Boulevard. Initially conceived as a grotesque comedy about a silent film star who attempts to revive her career, Sunset Boulevard was the movie in which, haunted by Gloria Swanson's monstrous Norma Desmond, the movies recognised themselves as history. Much like Be Kind Rewind, The Purple Rose of Cairo could’ve been unbearable if executed poorly. In this case, it’s easy to imagine that the story of a cinema devotee getting to walk around in the real world with one of her favorite film characters could've been too twee for its own good. Thankfully, Cairo avoids that route by focusing on its central characters, film buff Cecilia ( Mia Farrow) and archeologist Tom Baxter ( Jeff Daniels), the latter of whom has waltzed right off a movie theater screen and into the land of flesh-and-blood people.

Watch with purpose. Don’t just passively sit. Look deeply, listen intently, and get into the mode of an observer or critic. Here are examples of things to think about: For a long time now, that venerable storytelling art form — literature — hasn’t been able to do much for me. I had once written, in this very newspaper, that books had given me my longest standing identity: that of a reader. Now I’ll have to say I know myself more (and better) as a multiplex movie-goer and a home theatre DVD watcher.How true is such a thrilling, lofty vision of cinema when it comes to our own movies? How do Indian movies rate as art and entertainment, both now and in the past? I’ve been talking mostly of our shared, common experience of movie-watching in theatres and not in our homes, so how have we fared with our movie-going practices over the years?

Such were the captivating acts of the thespians on the screen. The audience was vocal, identifying itself intimately with the star. Behold, the sorcerer supreme arrives in the world full of superheroes! MCU‘s ‘Doctor Strange’ is the story of an egoist but acclaimed Doctor who loses his ability to use hands in an accident. Looking for a cure, he roams around the world before he reaches the mystic Kamar-Taj. There he learns the art of various realms and discovers the hidden world of magic. Unlike the comics, this served as the origin story and future movies such as ‘Thor – Ragnarok’ and ‘Infinity Wars’ shall explore more about his powers. The wonderful Benedict Cumberbatch played the titular role and was much appreciated for his portrayal of the sorcerer supreme. The movie stands out for its spectacular and mind tripping visual effects. The lead character is Bo Wolfe played by Jacob Latimore. It’s actually quite a good film and maybe one that has passed you by. It certainly doesn’t have the star power of The Prestige or The Illusionist, but there’s loads of good cardistry (basically, sleight of had with cards). When a family of three takes a wrong turn to enter the spirit world, things go astray. The father and mother turn into pigs while the daughter remains to fend for herself in a magical world, ruled by a witch. Akin to ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and ‘Wizard of Oz’, in terms of motifs and themes to describe human greed, ‘Spirited Away’ is an animation masterpiece, woven in love. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Disney, it received widespread acclaim and won many accolades around the world, including the Academy award for best animated feature film. Movies have immense soft power. They can greatly influence one’s ideas and opinions. The movie makers can make a large chunk of populace toe their line of thinking and feed the minds with distorted facts of history. Such trends are dangerous. Movies, I feel should be produced to entertain and not to provide education on history, science etc. Let education be left to the educators in the know of the subject. Entertainment with some simple message for the good of society should be the buzzword.I come from that generation for whom ‘movies’ was a guilty pleasure. You had to hide your love for it, you couldn’t celebrate it; you had to pretend along with the others that it was silly: at best, a way to kill time, at worst, a waste of time. It wasn’t art, it wasn’t a career, (not even a Vis Com course in sight) it wasn’t respected or even respectable. It also had to do with the state of the art of our movies which, frankly, wasn’t state of the art ‘anything’. (Yes, there were some charming, poetic, sepia-toned Guru Dutt-type movies, and some artsy cinema — the parallel cinema — but right there was the problem: it stayed parallel, didn’t connect, didn’t touch, didn’t go anywhere). No one in their right mind could look at our mainstream cinema then and say: that’s the most vital art form of the 20th century. Some of the films on this list are fictional accounts of the lives of some of the world's greatest and most famous magicians, especially Harry Houdini. In the 1953 classic biographical film Houdini, Tony Curtis plays the late, great escapologist and Janet Leigh plays his wife, Bess Houdini. If you're interested in movies about magic, this one is a must see. It all depends on whether or not you think your own kid is ready to watch fantasy movies that have more of a PG and PG-13 slant than a completely family-friendly tone. Since all kids are different and develop differently, your 7-year-old might be just as ready as your 13-year-old is to dive into Star Wars. If that’s the case, then you are the coolest parent ever to have kids with such great taste in film.

A traveling magician and his group are challenged when a small European town’s leaders including the police superintendent and the minister of health question the veracity of their acts. To put the rumours to rest, they demand a private show to verify the same. What unfurls next is perhaps beyond the grasp of fragile human mind. Directed by the great Ingmar Bergman, ‘The Magician’ encroaches into the sacrosanct territory and dares to ask the question: Does science have an explanation for everything that happens or is there really a God? Stories have been weaved into the fabric of our existence—they are as old as humanity. And storytelling as an art form (or perhaps a necessity) remains at the heart of the human experience. Movies tell the stories of our times. They define the landmarks of generation after generation. They document our prejudices and where we went wrong. Or they can spark debate and be the voice of change. Most of the exterior shots were shot at Le Trianon resort on the Blue Lake in Upper Lake, California.Siskel, Gene (November 13, 1978). "Hopkins' stellar 'Magic' act weaves a spell". Chicago Tribune. Section 3, p. 6 . Retrieved September 29, 2022– via Newspapers.com. I don’t know how much this once large and troubling reality about going to the movies in India has changed for women, but I do see a few young women now, mostly college-going, catch a morning or matinee alone at a multiplex. Killing time, bunking college or an irrepressible passion for cinema? Whichever it is, it’s nice to see they can choose to watch alone. I wonder how much of that ridiculous old stigma had also to do with the poor reputation cinema had in India for several generations as trashy and artistically inferior cinema. Our movies are hip and cool now, but even until the late 90s they were thought of as cheesy and infra dig. (What we could all unabashedly relish and celebrate were the movie songs, especially the old Hindi songs). Movies bring the story—in vivid detail—to life and transport us to a magical world. We escape, we laugh, we cry, we think and we learn through movies. I know ‘Now You See Me 2’ is far from impressive. In fact, parts of it are pretty ordinary, but I’d say that it’s one of the best in the genre. What’s exciting about both this one and its predecessor is that the magic part of the film has been used very well and it makes for a highly entertaining experience. ‘Now You See Me 2’ follows the Four Horseman in Macau, China where they are forced by a tech expert to pull of a dangerous and seemingly impossible heist. The story certainly looks exciting and it has quite a lot of interesting twists and turns that keep you engaged throughout. However, once the film is over, and when you start analyzing the plot-points, you realize that it is extremely convoluted and implausible for the most part. It’s a shame that Ed Solomon, the screenwriter, barely put any thought to the script. With more efforts, we could have had a much more solid, well-constructed plot that would have made for an amazingly entertaining cinematic experience.