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Anna Novion: Le Théorème de Marguerite / Marguerite's Theorem (FR/CH 2023). Ella Rumpf (Marguerite Hoffmann). |
Margureriten teoreema / Marguerites teorem.
FR/ CH © 2023 TS Productions / France 2 Cinéma [co-pc] / RTS Radio Télévision Suisse [co-pc] / Beauvoir Films [co-pc]. P: Adrian Blaser, Miléna Poylo, Gilles Sacuto et Aline Schmid.
Format : couleur — 2,35:1 — son 5.1 — DCP
Fiche technique
Réalisation : Anna Novion
Scénario : Agnès Feuvre, Marie-Stéphane Imbert, Anna Novion et Mathieu Robin
Photographie : Jacques Girault
Décors : Anne-Sophie Delseries
Costumes : Clara René
Musique : Pascal Bideau
Son : Roman Dymny, Marc Von Stürler et Béatrice Wick
Montage : Anne Souriau
Mathematics advisor : Ariane Mézard
Distribution
Ella Rumpf : Marguerite Hoffmann
Jean-Pierre Darroussin : Laurent Werner, son directeur de thèse
Clotilde Courau : Suzanne
Julien Frison : Lucas Savelli
Sonia Bonny : Noa
Cheng Xiaoxing (crédité Maurice Cheng) : M. Kong
Idir Azougli : Yanis
Camille de Sablet : la formatrice
Édouard Sulpice : un élève
Yun-Ping He : un adversaire du mah-jong
Karl Ruben Noel : le danseur
Ava Baya : la petite amie du danseur
Gauthier Boxebeld : le manager
Leila Muse : la journaliste
Esdras Registe : le collègue
Dominique Ratonnat : le professeur
Capucine Chappey : l'amie anglophone de Lucas
Le tournage a, entre autres, lieu à Paris pour l'École normale supérieure (ENS) de l'université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL), en mai 2022. Filming locations also include: Chinatown Belleville (Paris) and Lausanne.
Soundtrack selections include "Misirlou" (trad. from the Eastern Mediterranean Ottoman Empire, first recorded in 1927 in Greece), played by the math students' brass band.
Langue originale : français
Durée : 112 minutes
Genre : comédie dramatique
Sociétés de distribution : Pyramide Distribution (France) et Outside The Box (Suisse).
Dates de sortie :
France : 22 mai 2023 (Festival de Cannes) ; 1er novembre 2023 (sortie nationale)
Suisse romande : 15 novembre 2023
Finnish premiere: 3 May 2024 - released by Cinema Mondo - Finnish / Swedish subtitles by Outi Kainulainen / Joanna Erkkilä.
Viewed at Finnkino Tennispalatsi 14, Helsinki, Saturday 4 May 2024.
Synopsis from the press kit: " The future of Marguerite, a brilliant student in Mathematics at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure, seems all planned out. The only woman from her promo, she is finishing a thesis she has to expose to an audience of researchers. On D-day, a mistake shakes all her certainties and her foundations collapse. Marguerite decides to quit everything to start all over again. "
AA: Anna Novion's Marguerite's Theorem is a rewarding and original contribution to films about scientists, evoking from recent memory works such as
The Universal Theory,
The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything and A Beautiful Mind. Most of all I was thinking about
Oppenheimer.
Like The Universal Theory, Marguerite's Theorem is a fictional tale about fictional people, but reportedly it does not stray far from reality. The story is based on solid expertise provided by the mathematics advisor Ariane Mézard. The problems discussed are real: Goldbach's conjenture and Szemerédi's theorem and regularity lemma. I don't understand a word of what they are saying, but apparently we may see on the screen elements to real and new solutions. A documentary element is the real location of the fabled École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris where much of the action takes place.
It is an exciting story and also a psychological coming of age story. Marguerite Hoffmann (Ella Rumpf) is a mathematical genius who has come far in solving the most difficult problem: Goldbach's conjecture. Her professor Laurent Werner (Jean-Pierre Darroussin) takes a new student working with the same problem, Lucas Savelli (Julien Frison). Marguerite is hurt and jealous. In a crucial demonstration, Lucas exposes a mistake of hers. She is paralyzed, breaks down and abandons everything. She behaves childishly and immaturely. She blames Laurent and Lucas for scheming behind her back. She even lies to her mother, a math teacher. She cannot face failure. Werner advises her to take responsibility and move on. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody fails. He also teaches Marguerite that mathematics is not a solo venture.
Marguerite has always been the star pupil at the expense of living the normal life of a young woman. Having left mathematics behind, she becomes the housemate of a young dancer, Noa (Sonia Bonny) and wakes up at night to the sound of her orgasm on the other side of the wall. Marguerite has never had one. Aroused, she visits a bar in Noa's company and picks up a man "just for recreation". She takes a job at a sports store. In dire financial straits, she becomes a gambler in illegal mahjong dens. The new impulses, also including dancing, awaken her and give her fresh ideas.
Laurent warns Marguerite not to blend sentiment with mathematics. Marguerite's progress has become twisted because she has sacrificed everything for science. And because she was not living the life of a full human being, she was needlessly vulnerable in accidents. Opening to life outside mathematics, Marguerite becomes a better mathematician. Together with Lucas, Marguerite embarks on new directions and they become a wonderful team because they are different but committed to the same goal.
I was thinking about Oppenheimer, because it is the first Christopher Nolan movie with sex. I found it essential to the fabula. On that level of intellect, struggling with problems transcending the limits of understanding, it is possible to become too narrow-focused and thereby deranged. Sex, among other qualities, is a liberator, a power reset of mind and body and the ultimate stimulus. There is no mind without body. Mens sana in corpore sano. And there is no good sex without love. Marguerite's Theorem is a saga about the triumph of the spirit in harmony with the body - with life - with love.
Oppenheimer, too, was a celebration of team work - perhaps the greatest I can think of (I mean the movie and even more the book on which it is based). Oppenheimer himself is not the supreme genius. Unlike many in his team he never got the Nobel Prize. But he was the one who had talent to recognize talent and organize the world-changing enterprise in nuclear science.
BEYOND THE JUMP BREAK: FROM THE PRESS KIT: