Maximillian Cohen (Sean Gullette) is a brilliant mathematician, working as a number theorist. His hypothesis: that within the stock market – a universe of numbers – there exists a pattern.
A pattern that could be used to predict the stock market. Despite that information’s worth to Wall Street, however, Max’s motives are not materlialistic.
When Max was a child he stared at the sun and was temporarily blinded. Though he recovered his sight, he went on to suffer frequent seizures that leave him hallucinating and severely debilitated. Consequently, he’s highly paranoid and a social misfit, driven to find answers in the endless string of numbers that is Pi.
When Max’s computer - Euclid - crashes, it prints out a 216-digit number, which according to Max’s only friend and old mentor, Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), is a sign of consciousness in the computer just before failure. Max is soon attracting interest from Wall Street representatives as well as Judaic followers who believe it to be much more than a tool for the stock market or a sign of computer intelligence.
Director Darren Aronofsky and Pi Production
Pi has sometimes been compared to David Lynch’s otherworldly Eraserhead, presumably because both are black-and-white films. That's about as far as it goes. Eraserhead is a nightmarish effigy of life, whereas Pi has a more deliberate logic and purpose.
It’s high-contrast visuals are strongly directed for maximum suspence, particularly in the claustrophobic enclosure of Max’s apartment, where most of it is occupied by the sprawling conglomeration of parts that make up Euclid.
Pi is a visual outcast, distancing itself from the norm with the use of hand-held footage and actor-mounted cameras. The quality of the picture varies from being very chaotic and rough-around-the-edges to serene and clear, according to the tone of the scenes, with credit going both to Aronofsky and cinematographer Matthew Libatique.
The film marked Aronofsky’s award-winning directorial debut, who went on to make the highly regarded Requiem for a Dream. It also featured the debut of Clint Mansell, who scored the film to good effect.
Sean Gullette and the Pi Cast
Sean Gullette is a method actor who put himself through the ringer for his role. In Aronofsky’s commentary, he points out a scene in which Max is staring at his reflection in the mirror. “You can’t buy that look,” says Aronofsky, and he’s right. Gullette is a Director’s dream, utterly immersing himself in the misery of Max.
Sol brings perspective to Max’s theoretical pursuits and Mark Margolis brings experienced candour to Sol as he and Gullette share outstandingly scripted scenes over a game of Go.
Also noteworthy is Ben Shenkman as Lenny Meyer, a Jewish practitioner who educates Max on the Torah, which is said to be a mathematical code sent by God. Shenkman gives his role a lot of charm and his scenes with Max are a welcome asset to the film’s very grim undertones.
Pi also features Pamela Hart as Marcy Dawson - a kind of Wall Street ‘enforcer’ - and Samia Shoaib as Devi, Max’s pretty and friendly neighbour. While these are both laudable, special mention should go to Stephen Pearlman as Rabbi Cohen, who died soon after production. Aronofsky states that Pearlman was very moved by his part in the film, which clearly has high religious overtones. Pearlman’s is a short but distinguished appearance, in which he explains the origins of the Torah.
Academic Criticism and the Plot of Pi
Yes, mathematicians will point out innaccuracies in the film’s representation of the Golden Rectangle and other numerological assertions (and well done to them, they must be very proud), while practitioners of Judaism will point out other innaccuracies in the representation of the Torah and the 216-digit number. Even Go enthusiasts may find room to chime in, but that would be missing the point entirely.
Aronofsky himself marks out several imperfections throughout the movie in his commentary track. It simply doesn’t matter here, because mathematics, Judaism, computerized intelligence and even Go are not the point of this film.
The point is in how they are related – all in orbit of the singular principle that spawned them all; a principle that can only be represented through these surrounding phenomena. In mathematics that principle is Grand Unified Theory, in Judaism it’s God, in computer technology Consciousness, and in the game Go it is Chaos.
Pedantry here will only get in the way of what is a brilliantly composed idea, chock full of metaphors and philosophical premises.
Pi Mathematics
Let’s do some mathematics of our own. Let’s ‘randomly’ choose a blockbuster movie like Fantastic Four 2 and compare it to the figures of Pi. Well, FF2 took in the region of $290 million at the box-office. Pi took in a total of just over $3 million. This suggests, superficially, that FF2 was a massive 96 times more successful than Pi.
However, FF2 cost $130 million to produce (that’s $130 million!), meaning that FF2 more accurately made $160 million, rather than 290. Pi, staggeringly, had a budget of a mere $60 thousand, which has little impact on it’s take of $3 million. This suggests, more accurately, that FF2 was 50 times more financially successful than Pi, as opposed to the near hundred that it first seemed.
A more accurate representation still, however, can be found in the cost-to-box-office ratio, where FF2 has a ratio of $2.2 made for every $1 spent, whereas Pi has made approximately $54 dollars for every $1 spent.
That seems a very accurate conclusion to the gulf in class between something as intellectually and creatively unique as Pi and any overblown blockbuster.
- Producer: Eric Watson, Scott Vogel
- Director: Darren Aronofsky
- Screenplay: Darren Aronofsky
- Starring: Sean Gullette, Mark Margolis, Ben Shenkman, Stephen Pearlman.
- Released: 1998 by Harvest Film Works, Live Entertainment.
- Running Time: 85 mins.
Michael Pantazi - Michael Pantazi is just another aspiring writer with delusions of artistic ability. He is almost entirely self-educated and living in ...
