Math-themed movies
penny February 20th, 2012
The School of Maths is hosting a fortnightly math-themed movie night. It isn’t possible for me to participate at this point, but I thought I’d keep track of the movies they’re watching, while AJ and I can try and make time to see these films ourselves. I can think of quite a number of math-themed films, and we’ve seen some. I’m curious to see what the series of films will be like coming from professors in the Maths School. Back in UPD there was one experimental film AJ and I watched, entitled “Pi”, as recommended by Dr. Fidel Nemenzo. I don’t think I’ve seen it more than once. Perhaps it’s time we saw it again? I remember it was difficult to watch, as experimental films aren’t really our taste. Interesting to see them once in a while though.
The first movie in the line-up is also an experimental title: Zorn’s Lemma. Some background on the actual Zorn’s lemma is somewhat necessary, I was told. Seeing as it is experimental, it might be worth noting that it’s a short one, clocking at less than an hour, so that will make it a little more bearable to see? =) So here is a link to its wiki. A quick google research on this movie brings one problem to this to-do: where to find a copy of it? I found a series of youtube links, the first of which is here, but of poor quality. Anyway, that’ll do for now.
On a related note, here is a link to a blog about 1001 movies to see before you die, etc. I remember seeing Dr M with a copy of a book with the same title, along with a highlighter pen. Imagine the sight of an elderly mathematician with silver hair+moustache+beard smirking at you, his skin tanned and glowing while he wears slippers a tank top and ragged maong shorts, while sitting on his director’s chair near the pebbly shore of his seaside property. That’s Dr. M. And everytime I remember him that’s the image I see.
Some related links:
Zorn’s Lemma (1970)
A blog post on the film
