Death Proof

[pozorvlak]

My flatmates and I went to see the new Quentin Tarantino film, Death Proof, last night. In this off-beat thriller, Tarantino turns his trademark blend of hip dialogue and beautifully-shot ultraviolence to the world of pure mathematics. Kurt Russell stars as an embittered former number theorist who plots revenge on the profession that wronged him by

Comments

[half_of_monty]

Tarantino turns his trademark blend of hip dialogue and beautifully-shot ultraviolence to the world of pure mathematics.

i.e. Tarantino is writing a film for pozorvlak.

Actually, from your summary of the plot, it sounds like he pinched it from the fabulous half-written play, ``Harry Potter and the Hodge Apple'', in which a tram, hijacked to Vladivostok, ends up washing the proof of the Hodge conjecture off the blackboard as it surfs down the river Liffey - at which point the conjecture ceases to be true and magic enters the world.

Now I come to think about it, that was a marvellous play. I should get back in touch with people and finish it!

[pozorvlak]

Er, not quite...

[half_of_monty]

Aw.

*headdesk*

Snigger.

[half_of_monty]

Mind you your version sounds better.

Do you think there's a market in Edinburgh for insane pure maths based thriller? Sounds like we have a lot of good ingrediants between us.

[pozorvlak]

It would also, I think, make her the first female Fields Medallist (but not the first New Zealander).

[half_of_monty]

Oh yes. What rubbishness.

Why doesn't Claire Voisin have one?

[pozorvlak]

Institutional sexism?

FWIW, I've never heard of her, but then I don't work in algebraic geometry.

[elvum]

I've been planning to boycott the European release of the two halves of Grindhouse in fury at the studios trampling over the artistic vision of two directors I respect - should I reconsider? :-)

[pozorvlak]

Hmmmm. The trouble with that, it seems to me, is that the studios are more likely to interpret it as "nobody wanted to see your stupid film anyway, Quentin/Robert, you're all washed up". Clamour for the release of the double-bill DVD or something :-)

The thing is, I'm a slavish admirer of all of Tarantino's work, so I'm kinda the wrong person to ask. But yeah, I'd go and see it: it's not as good as Pulp Fiction or Reservoir Dogs, but it's up there with Jackie Brown.

[shuripentu]

Ooh, I might just have to go see that, then. I've generally been skeptical of films with maths in and not bothered seeing most of them, but that might be because the only one I did watch was Good Will Hunting and I got rather annoyed at the "incredibly difficult, unsolved graph theory problem". *rolls eyes* :p

[pozorvlak]

Er, not quite. I'm rather astonished that two people have fallen for that...

The film's still worth seeing, mind.

[shuripentu]

Well, stranger films have been made so it's not too far out. :)

[pozorvlak]

My friend Richard had an idea for a film to be called Final Analysis, about a Banach space theorist whose children are kidnapped by Colombian drug lords, and who vows revenge.