Pi:Special Edition
Artisian Entertainment
1.66:1/Dolby Digital 2.0/Black&White
Rated:R
Region:1
Running Time:85MIN
Closed Captioned For The Hearing Impared
The Film:
"PI" is an entertaining, wild little indie film about a reclusive math genius who spends
his life desperately seeking the answers to the Universe, among other things, within the scientific
language of mathematics; math, according to Max Cohen, is what makes the world go around.
"PI" has a lot to say, but the way that the film is set-up and made(60,000 dollars/Grainy Black and White)
makes it a little hard to draw out much in the way of a greater meaning. I'd like to see this film
remade with a bigger budget, myself. As it is, it's a fascinating work of artistry, but the story
itself is only somewhat interesting.
Sean Gullette is excellent as Cohen, the paranoid mathematician, driven underground by those following
him, who want what he has inside his head. It sort of seems like what "Good Will Hunting" was originally
written to be(in the 1st draft, Will was chased by the government for his knowledge); anyways, "Pi" turns
into a hallucinatory thriller as Max is chased for his knowledge by not only a Hasidic Jewish man who believes
that the number in Max's mind is the secret of his religion, as well as a Wall Street Broker.
"Pi"'s got some very good, very thrilling moments, it's unfortunate that the film is sort of hard to watch
at points due to the serious grain of the black and white footage(I would not want to watch this film on VHS).
I mean, "Clerks" looks great compared to "Pi". But still, the story and the acting is there, and if you've got
the patience, "Pi" is a wild ride.
The DVD:
Picture Quality:"Pi" has been given a great transfer; DVD is the only way I think "Pi" would be viewable. I would imagine
that the film would be far too murky looking on VHS. The digital transfer is letterboxed at 1.66:1; it's very strong and very
great in terms of the level of black in the picture, but still, some of the darker scenes in "Pi" are hard to make
out, no matter what format they're to be presented on. Still, pretty darn good for what the source material looks like.
Audio: It works for what it is. I can't imagine that the original soundtrack was much of a marvel. Dialogue is well-recorded,though,
on this disc, and, in this film, that's all that really matters. The techno music does seem to overpower the dialogue in places,
but the film is all about mood, and in that way, the music does well and earns it's place. Not a real sharp soundtrack, but
at least the clarity is there.
Extras:A lot of cool stuff:
4 Deleted Scenes With Or W/O Commentary
Two Running Commentaries:
1.Director
2.Star
Behind the scenes clips that take the viewer through production to the Sundance fest. Narrated by Actor and Director.
Music Video
2 Trailers
Cast/Crew Bios
Production Notes
Menus:Very cool menus; there's even animated scene selection(which is pretty cool for a $60,000 film!).
