Pi (film)

Pi
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Produced by
  • Eric Watson
  • Scott Vogel
Screenplay by Darren Aronofsky
Story by
Starring
Music by Clint Mansell
Cinematography Matthew Libatique
Edited by Oren Sarch
Production
company
Distributed by Artisan Entertainment
Release date
  • July 10, 1998 (1998-07-10)
Running time
 84 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $68,000
Box office $3,221,152[2]

Pi (stylized as π)[lower-alpha 1] is a 1998 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky in his directorial debut. Pi was filmed on high-contrast black-and-white reversal film[3][4] and earned Aronofsky the Directing Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay and the Gotham Open Palm Award.

The title refers to the mathematical constant pi.[lower-alpha 2] The film is notable for its covering of an array of themes including religion, mysticism and the relationship of the universe to mathematics.

The story is about a mathematician and the obsession with mathematical regularity contrasts two seemingly irreconcilable entities: the imperfect, irrational humanity and the rigor and regularity of mathematics, specifically number theory.[5]

Plot

Unemployed and living in a drab Chinatown apartment in New York City, Max Cohen is a number theorist who believes that everything in nature can be understood through numbers. Max suffers from cluster headaches, as well as extreme paranoia, hallucinations, and social anxiety disorder. His only social interactions are with Jenna, a young girl fascinated with his ability to mentally do complex calculations; Devi, a young woman living next door; and Sol Robeson, his old mathematics mentor who is now an invalid.

Max tries to program his computer, Euclid, to make stock predictions. Euclid malfunctions, prints out a seemingly random 216-digit number, as well as a single pick at one-tenth its current value, then crashes. Disgusted, Max throws away the printout. The next morning, he finds out that the pick Euclid made was accurate. He searches desperately but cannot find the printout. When he mentions the number, Sol becomes unnerved and asks if it contained 216 digits. When Max questions him about the number, Sol indicates that he came across it many years ago. He urges Max to slow down and take a break.

At a coffee shop he frequents, Max meets Lenny Meyer, a Hasidic Jew who does mathematical research on the Torah. Lenny demonstrates some simple Gematria, the correspondence of the Hebrew alphabet to numbers, and explains how some people believe that the Torah is a string of numbers that form a code sent by God. Max is intrigued, noting some of the concepts are similar to other mathematical concepts such as the Fibonacci sequence. Max is also approached by agents of a Wall Street firm. One of the agents, Marcy Dawson, offers Max a classified computer chip called "Ming Mecca" in exchange for the results of his work.

Using the Ming Mecca chip, Max has Euclid analyze mathematical patterns in the Torah. Once again, Euclid shows the 216-digit number on the screen before crashing. As Max begins to write down the number, he realizes that he knows the pattern, undergoes a sudden epiphany, and passes out. After waking up, Max appears to become clairvoyant and is able to visualize the stock market patterns he had been searching for. However, his headaches also increase in intensity, and he discovers a strange vein-like bulge protruding from his right temple. Max has a falling out with Sol after the latter urges him to quit his work.

One evening, Dawson and her agents grab Max on the street and try to force him to explain the number. They had found the original printout Max threw away. In an attempt to use it to manipulate the stock market, the firm caused the market to crash instead. Lenny drives by and helps Max get away. However, Lenny takes Max to his companions at a nearby synagogue. They ask Max to give them the 216-digit number, believing it was meant for them to bring about the messianic age, as the number represents the unspeakable name of God. Max refuses, insisting that whatever the source of the number is, it has been revealed to him alone.

Max flees and visits Sol, only to find out he recently died from another stroke, and finds a piece of paper with the number in his study. Back in his own apartment, Max experiences another headache, but does not take his painkillers. Driven to the brink of madness, he destroys part of Euclid. Believing that the number and the headaches are linked, Max tries to concentrate on the number through the pain. After passing out, Max has a vision of himself standing in a white void and repeating the digits of the number. The vision ends with Max hugging Devi, who turns out to be a hallucination. Standing alone in his trashed apartment, Max burns the paper with the number and blithely performs an impromptu trepanning on himself with a power drill.

Some time later, Jenna approaches Max in a park and asks him to do several calculations, including 748 ÷ 238 (an approximation for pi)[lower-alpha 3] Max smiles and says that he doesn't know the answer to them. He sits on the bench and watches the trees blowing in the breeze, seemingly at peace.

Cast

Release

Produced on a $68,000 budget, the film was financially successful at the box office, grossing $3,221,152 in the United States[2] despite only a limited theatrical release. It has sold steadily on DVD. Pi was the first ever film to be made available for download on the Internet.[6]

Critical reception

The film was well received. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an 88% approval rating based on 56 reviews with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Dramatically gripping and frighteningly smart, this Lynchian thriller does wonders with its unlikely subject and shoestring budget."[7] On Metacritic, the film has a rating of 72 out of 100 based on 23 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8] Roger Ebert gave the film three and a half stars out of four, writing: "Pi is a thriller. I am not very thrilled these days by whether the bad guys will get shot or the chase scene will end one way instead of another. You have to make a movie like that pretty skillfully before I care. But I am thrilled when a man risks his mind in the pursuit of a dangerous obsession."[9] James Berardinelli gave the film three out of four stars, writing: "[Pi] transports us to a world that is like yet unlike our own, and, in its mysterious familiarity, is eerie, intense, and compelling. Reality is a fragile commodity, but, because the script is well-written and the central character is strongly developed, it's not hard to suspend disbelief....It probably deserves 3.1416 stars, but since my scale doesn't support that, I'll round it off to three."[10]

Themes

Mathematics

Pi features multiple references to mathematics and mathematical theories.[lower-alpha 4] For instance, Max finds the golden spiral occurring everywhere, including the stock market. Max's belief that diverse systems embodying highly nonlinear dynamics share a unifying pattern bears much similarity to results in chaos theory, which provides machinery for describing certain phenomena of nonlinear systems, which might be thought of as patterns. During the climactic drill scene, a pattern resembling a bifurcation diagram is apparent on Max's shattered mirror.

The game of Go

In the film, Max periodically plays Go with his mentor, Sol.[11] This game has historically stimulated the study of mathematics[12] and features a simple set of rules that results in a complex game strategy. The two characters each use the game as a model for their view of the universe; Sol says that the game is a microcosm of an extremely complex and chaotic world, while Max asserts its complexity gradually converges toward patterns that can be found.[11][lower-alpha 5]

Both Gullette and Margolis spent many hours learning the game at the Brooklyn Go Club, and had the help of a Go consultant, Dan Weiner, for the film.[11] The film credits list Barbara Calhoun, Michael Solomon and Dan Wiener as Go consultants.

Kabbalah

Early in the film, when Lenny begins talking with Max about his work, he asks if Max is familiar with kabbalah. The numerological interpretation of the Torah and the 216-letter name of God, known as the Shem HaMeforash, are important concepts in traditional Jewish mysticism.

Quran

Another religious reference is when Max is in the market looking for today's newspaper, there is a recitation from Quran, in the background, citing Quran 2:140: "Or do you say that Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Descendants were Jews or Christians? Say, "Are you more knowing or is Allah?" And who is more unjust than one who conceals a testimony he has from Allah? And Allah is not unaware of what you do."

Soundtrack

π - Music For The Motion Picture
Soundtrack album by Clint Mansell
Released July 21, 1998
Genre Soundtracks
Electronica
Length 1:10:03
Label Sire 90506-2
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic

Pi launched the film scoring career of Clint Mansell. The soundtrack was released on July 21, 1998, via Thrive Records. Allmusic rated it 4.5 stars out of five.[13] A music video for "πr²", using an alternative mix of the title track, is available as a special feature on the π DVD, consisting of footage from the film intercut with stock color reels of ants, harking back to one of the film's visual motifs.

No.TitleArtistLength
1."πr²"Clint Mansell1:29
2."P.E.T.R.O.L."Orbital6:22
3."Kalpol Introl" (The back cover incorrectly names track 3 as "Kalpol Intro".)Autechre3:30
4."Bucephalus Bouncing Ball"Aphex Twin6:02
5."Watching Windows" (Ed Rush & Optical remix)Roni Size6:35
6."Angel"Massive Attack6:10
7."We Got the Gun"Clint Mansell4:52
8."No Man's Land"David Holmes6:18
9."Anthem"GusGus4:52
10."Drippy"Banco de Gaia8:37
11."Third from the Sun"Psilonaut5:10
12."A Low Frequency Inversion Field"Spacetime Continuum6:58
13."2πr"Clint Mansell3:05
Credits
  • Design – Jeremy Dawson, Sneak Attack
  • Executive-Producer – Eric Watson, Ricardo Vinas, Sioux Zimmerman
  • Mastered By – Mark Fellows
  • Written-By [Voiceover] – Darren Aronofsky, Sean Gullette

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ On-screen title is π, i.e. lowercase Pi and symbol for the mathematical constant Pi.
  2. ↑ The film's title sequence shows the Greek letter π, followed by hundreds of lines of numbers representing the numerical value of the constant. However, the numbers are not accurate past the first eight decimal places.
  3. ↑ Since 748/238 = 22/7 X 34/34, this was a "slow pitch" question.
  4. ↑ Much, and even most ( if not all, ) of the mathematical imagery consists of graphical matter to be found in "Jahnke and Emde." That is the Dover Edition of Tables of Functions by Eugene Jahnke and Fritz Emde.
  5. ↑ SOL: Listen to me. The Ancient Japanese considered the Go board a microcosm of the universe. When it is empty it appears simple and ordered, but the possibilities of game play are endless. They say that no two Go games have ever been alike. Just like snowflakes. So, the Go board actually represents an extremely complex and chaotic universe. That is the truth of our world, Max. It can't be easily summed up with math. There is no simple pattern.
    MAX: But as a Go game progresses, the possibilities become smaller and smaller. The board does take on order. Soon, all moves are predictable.
    SOL: So?
    MAX: So, maybe, even though we're not sophisticated enough to be aware of it, there is an underlying order... a pattern, beneath every Go game. Maybe that pattern is like the pattern in the market, in the Torah. The two sixteen number.

References

  1. ↑ "PI (15)". British Board of Film Classification. November 3, 1998. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Pi (1998)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. December 4, 1998. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  3. ↑ Runyon, Christopher (2013-01-13). "The Darren Aronofsky Retrospective: 'Pi'". Movie Mezzanine. San Francisco. Retrieved 2017-01-31. Shot in ludicrously grainy, high-contrast black & white
  4. ↑ Anderson, Jeffrey M. (1998-06-25). "Interview with Darren Aronofsky: Easy as 3.14..." Combustible Celluloid. San Francisco. Retrieved 2017-01-31. The film is shot in very harsh, gritty, bleak, grainy black-and-white 16mm.
  5. ↑ Skorin-Kapov, Jadranka (2015) Darren Aronofsky's Films and the Fragility of Hope, Bloomsbury Academic
  6. ↑ "SightSound to Netcast Franchise Pix". Scribd. Retrieved 2017-03-27.
  7. ↑ Pi at Rotten Tomatoes
  8. ↑ Pi at Metacritic
  9. ↑ Ebert, Roger (July 24, 1998). "Pi". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  10. ↑ Berardinelli, James (1998). "π (Pi)". ReelViews. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
  11. 1 2 3 The Game of Go, PiTheMovie.com, archived from the original on 22 February 2014, retrieved 2008-07-12
  12. ↑ Fairbairn, John, "Go and Mathematics", MindZine, archived from the original on 8 June 2011
  13. ↑ Pi at AllMusic
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