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The latest in a series providing rare film of great musicians from the early 20th century, Bruno Monsaingeon’s exploration of the violinistic giants is full of fabulous footage, although the context in which they are placed sometimes leaves a question or two unanswered. The film is in two parts, The Devil’s Instrument focuses on technique, the physical individuality of players and the dangers of being a child prodigy. Transcending the Violin looks at (literally) fine-tuned issues such as tone colour, the instruments themselves and differences of style. Oddly, The Devil’s Instrument as a title is never explained; the reference to Paganini is brief, and you could be forgiven for thinking that ‘the devil’ in question is Heifetz, who astonished every subsequent violinist into wanting to be him and consequently may be responsible for reduced individuality among modern fiddlers. But the individuality of playing in the golden age is proved in a brilliant montage of the Mendelssohn Concerto moving seamlessly through nine very, very different great violinists.

The sequence on prodigies is moving. Some extraordinary film of the child Ricci performing with all the flair of an adult is balanced by footage of Boris Goldstein and Michael Rabin, teenagers playing perfectly, but with body and facial language betraying their broken spirits. After his nauseating introduction by a showbiz host, Rabin’s eyes scarcely lift, except once, when he glances surreptitiously at the conductor: a dark, frightening, tragic slip of a gaze, hard to forget.

Between excerpts come commentaries by Itzhak Perlman, Ivry Gitlis, Ida Haendel and Hilary Hahn. Perlman is entertaining, Haendel Insightful and Gitlis enthusiastic, but Hahn’s contributions sometimes seem ill chosen. Her remark that Kogan looks ‘panicked’ is mystifying (he doesn’t — he just has a rather strange face — and he merits deeper discussion). And she expected Ginette Neveu to look ‘graceful and feminine’ but found she wasn’t — is this helpful? That isn’t to detract from the all-too-brief film of the phenomenally Intense Neveu herself. It would have been better to include some film of Hahn playing the violin, as she could certainly prove that the golden age of the violin isn’t over yet.

Never mind — the wealth of historical film is staggering: Szigeti, Elman, Milstein, Francescatti, Thibaud and many more. Yet Monsaingeon appears to hold up Yehudi Menuhin as the peak of violinistic greatness: the film both begins and ends with him and the commentators sing his praises unreservedly. On the basis of all the extracts that have gone before, it isn’t easy to accept this implied judgement: my own feeling is that he is totally eclipsed by Oistrakh.

Finally, do try to see this on DVD. The improvement in quality of both picture and sound quality is certainly worth the increase in price.

PI is a movie about science. A computer scientist is obsessed with finding out secrets of nature by searching for a number which will discover all laws of nature. If you are a physicist or have read “A brief history of time”, you might have come across the term “Grand unified theory”. Max cohen ( Sean Gullette) is on the search for a number which will unlock the secrets of our universe. Below is a review of the movie

PI isn’t about the mathematical constant 3.1415.., representing, among many other things, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diametre. The movie is about the deranged and beautiful quest of one person in search of the truth, the answer to the universe. The plot is a common one in science fiction: a phenotypic “aberration” in the brain causes the protagonist to develop special abilities that makes him sought after and feared. In this particular cases, Max acquires a deep grasp of number theory. With his assumptions, that mathematics is the universal language, that number theory can represent everything in nature, and that there is a pattern in everything that occurs in this universe, he sets about trying to find it in the stock market.

After him are people who are interested in his stock market analyses for monetary purposes, and more strangely, a group of Rabbis who are convinced the same pattern of numbers is the key to their salvation. However, Max is the only one who can understand the semantics of the 216 digit number that is key to the universal lock, a plot device that I thought was truly brilliant. In the end, Max succeeds on his quest, but what he understands is never revealed to us. I was fascinated with the idea of a Grand unified theory where if you understand the laws of nature, you can predict the course of events in the past as well as the future. We might disover laws of nature and soon be able to understand how our planet will behave in future including the course of events which might happen on it.

PI has an obscure plot but it might keep your attention if you have a scientific background. The movie is filmed in black and white and we are always kept wondering what is on Max’s mind who is the lead character of the movie.

I strongly recommend this movie if you are a mathematician or a computer scientist or if you can relate to science and techonlogy. I would rate this movie 8 out of 10.