Here it is! My 200th movie. 8 Months in exactly. I pondered how to celebrate this occasion. I searched for movies with "200" in the title and all I found was 200 Cigarettes. And while that movie is crammed full with talented people (my all time favorite recording artist Elvis Costello even makes a cameo) I decided to go with something with a little more substance. I liked the idea of sticking with a title with numbers in it. In my collection I have 500 Days of Summer, 300 (I think I know what I will be watching in 4 months) 2001: A Space Odyssey and 28 Days Later. None of these jumped off the shelf. 2001 was close, but I don't think I have the intellect or vocabulary to critique that movie. But then it hit me. What movie has all the digits? What movies numbers goes on for all of eternity? Pi. 3.14159....
Aronofsky's first feature film. A student project of sorts, this was shot on 16mm black and white reversal. This might not mean much to the everyday movie go'er, but that is an inexpensive, grainy film stock rarely ever used in feature films. But then again, Pi is not a film for casual film fans. It is the story of a mathematician who is looking for patterns in the universe. He believes that all things can be represented by numbers and that if you look at any group of numbers patterns begin to appear. He is sought after by a company trying to harvest his work. They seem helpful at first, but then turn on him. He is also being stalked be a group of Hasidic Jews that believe that the true name of God is a 218 digit number, and that Max might have found it. He is added on his journey by a former professor, until Max becomes obsessed with his findings.
Pi is the story of a man traveling down a rabbit hole of insanity. His health is failing him. He takes handfuls of medication daily. He is paranoid and alone. He has the number in his head and it appears to be killing him. His computer seems to be self aware at times. He doesn't drift but seems to get thrown into and out of psychedelic episodes. Much like in Aronofsky's last film The Black Swan, we the audience doesn't know what is real and what is happening all within the protagonists head.
Pi is a master course of cutting for emotion. The film's non-liner editing and use of repetition is used as a character development tool, and used very effectively. You really get a sense of who Max is and what he is going for. Another technique used here is a camera strapped to the waist and shooting back at the person wearing it. This effect provides a bizarre spacial relationship between the camera, it's focus point and the elements around it. I sort of puts us in the head of Max while making Max look as if he is not from this world at all.
The script is shape and pretty tight. At a run time of 85 minutes I wouldn't want it to be any shorter, but at some points I think there was a little bit of wheel spinning that could have been a little more compressed. As I mentioned before the soundtrack is techno and electronica. Again, adding to the feeling of paranoia and desperation.
Well, that is my 200th blog. 4 months to go and we'll see how many films I can cram in there. Here's shooting for a Zack Snyder Sept 1. In the mean time I give Pi ★★★★.
