Review of Proof (1980) by Jasmine C — 30 Jun 2015

The only verb directly comes to mind is "bouleverser". Not in the way that usually sentimental movies tugging on certain threads of emotional cords, but something about the loss and sorrow.

I do recognize the life of the mathematicians. It is not important of any particular speciality - math or physics or chemistry -but a life of mind. I am among the truly gifted ones who have their daemons standing and prodding them steadily toward the higher reaches of discovery and even fames, but I did have glimpses of the pure beauty that resides resolutely above the life quotidian. The movie mentioned the imaginary unit "i" as the geek rock bands play in complete silence. I know how this non-existed number (which is the square-root of minus -1) defines the boundary of what is tangible, to what is realm of pure ideas. It may be an inside joke in the movie, but it can mean something very solemn for those of us who had previously pestered our professors with "but it does not exist in reality". It is something we can not know perceptually, yet this pure idea has made much of our electronic technology possible.

The crux of the story, I think, lies the conflicting demands of intellect and heart. In the scene where the deranged father forced the daughter to read out his "proof" in the snowing night, I can see something more than the sorrow and suffering, the futile struggle against the disintegrating body, but a sense of affirmation of human bond. Does it really matter that there is a breakthrough in math when there are such two souls linking together against the inclemency of age and disease?