"Pi" (1998) Directed by Darren Aronofsky

“When I was a little kid, my Mother told me not to stare into the Sun”.

This highly disturbing debut feature from Darren Aronofsky was also written by the Director with lead actor Sean Gullette and Eric Watson, is entirely in black and white and reputedly made on a budget of just $60,000. Hand held and Steadicam shots dominate a seemingly two toned film, one of clarity and pristine shots and one of murkier, dirtier and darker obscured shots which is both intentional and a motif for the film of duality, paranoia and suspicion. The obvious theme and motif for the film is as suggested by the film’s title Pi and the mathematical equation of 3.14159, a constantly recurring number and the ratio of a circle’s circumference to it’s diameter. “Max Cohen” (Sean Gullette) is an obsessive and compulsive number theorist who constantly sees recurring patterns in numbers, ratios and, as the film progresses, life as a whole. The film opens with Max immediately confronted by a young girl called “Jenna” (Kristyn Mae-Anne Lao), calculator in hand asking for his answer to a complex mathematical equation to which he answers almost immediately. As he walks away she asks another and again Max, without the aid of a calculator, answers immediately however this first meeting is the first in a series of meetings and events that shape Max’s life and becomes both a theme for the film (of life and history repeating itself in a constant loop) and the introduction to a sparse set of main characters. The film as a whole has just 29 credited character roles of which only six are main characters and a constant throughout this short 84 minute film.

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The above opening paragraphs are taken from my spoiler free review of "Pi" and one of my earliest forays into film writing and film appreciation over a decade ago. This review was originally penned and published over a decade ago, transferred to my Medium blog site on 14th June 2022 and can now be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site and original updated article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/pi-1998-34d9685e1ab0

This spoiler free review is also integral to volume 4 in my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection". Currently only available as an e-book, all 7 exhaustive volumes of multiple spoiler free film reviews are priced at £4.99 however, should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package you can read each and every volume for free.

Volume 4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4MG435K

All 7 Volumes Series

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0C4HZSTTH?binding=kindle_edition&ref=dbs_dp_rwt_sb_pc_tukn

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