DVD Tuesday: Magic Numbers — Pi over 23
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Mathematicians live in a black and white world of absolutes and infinitely reproducible results, while mystics deal in ambiguity and magical thinking, and never the twain shall meet. Except, of course, when math becomes so theoretical that the two melt into one mind-blowing mass of golden proportions and lucky numbers. Nearly 10 years before
Jim Carrey got tangled up in
The Number 23, this week's DVD Tuesday pick pitched camp on the numerical border between razor's-edge rationality and complete lunacy.
Darren Aronofsky's super-low budget
Pi (1998) was a knockout debut, and if he hasn't yet delivered on its promise (
Requiem for a Dream (2000) is a highfalutin' "Just Say No" PSA with style to burn and
The Fountain (2006) is a flat-out mess), the film itself looks better than ever.
Mathematician Max Cohen (
Sean Gullette) specializes in number patterns, the bigger the better. He's looking for the sequence of digits that will lay bare the order of the world (or life, the universe and everything, in which case it's 42). A true believer in the purity of numbers themselves, he only wants is to be left to the calculations that are slowly driving him out of his mind. But Max's theoretical investigations have attracted the attention of two diametrically opposed, equally fanatical sets of seekers: a ruthless group of financial analysts looking for a way to game the stock market, and a sect of orthodox Jews convinced the true name of God is hidden in a 216-digit number buried somewhere in the Torah.
Shot in stark black-and-white and driven by Pop Will Eat Itself alumnus Clint Mansell's hypnotic score,
Pi vividly evokes the chilly horror of being trapped in an unraveling reality where no one and nothing is as it seems. Aronofsky does paranoia right, but also understands the way personal obsessions can reflect larger cultural anxieties: that's why
Pi resonates as strongly today as it did when it was new.
Things to consider:
Numerology is to academic mathematics what astrology is to astronomy: What does that mean, and is it true?
Many films try to find a visual way to depict states of mind: Why is that so hard to do, and what films have done it well?
Phrases like "do the math" and "it doesn't add up" are rooted in our cultural convictions about numbers. What are the underlying ideas behind those statements?
Previous DVD Tuesday blogs:
The Prestige
13 Tzameti
The Departed
Suspiria
Kiss and Make Up
Kiss Me Deadly
The Long Good Friday
What Alice Found
The Devil's Backbone
The Descent
The Devil Wears Prada
Pandora's Box
The Thief and the Cobbler
Nashville
Panic in the Streets/Jack Palance Interview
The Pusher Trilogy
Scarface
Slither
Sunset Blvd.
In Cold Blood
Brick
Also:
This week's new DVD releases
