How was that again with the theory of relativity? It’s actually quite simple, says Stan and explains it to the beautiful Françoise at a party like this: “Imagine if there were no one else in this room and we were the only two planets in the universe.” You and Stan the only two planets in the universe? Francoise likes this. “Then we couldn’t be sure of anything,” Stan continues, “because there would be no fixed points. Anything you say would be true from your planet’s perspective, and anything I say would be true from my planet’s perspective . The only thing we would know for sure is that the speed of light is exactly the same everywhere. For everyone.”
This flirt professional Stan is actually called Stanisław Ulam and teaches mathematics at Harvard. He was born in Poland in 1909, in Lwow, which later became Lemberg and then Lviv. Because of the war at home, he simply stayed in Cambridge, America, in 1939 and even brought his younger brother Adam with him from his last leave home. The German director Thorsten “Thor” Klein has now dedicated a biopic to Stan, based on his autobiography, because Stanisław Ulam was not just any mathematician, but an exceptional spirit, an unconventional teacher who explained mathematical problems to his students with examples from Las Vegas – his But he also used his intellect to construct a weapon whose effect exceeds imagination.
The characters are planets in an otherwise empty universe
Because Ulam was instrumental in the development of the atomic and hydrogen bombs, which still work today because of his ideas. Although not as well known as John von Neumann or Robert Oppenheimer, its history reveals a lot about that time and the people who felt compelled to build this terrible weapon back then. A topic that seems urgent right now, not only because of the nuclear threats from the Kremlin: Also Christopher Nolan has announced a film about Robert Oppenheimer for next year.
Klein doesn’t tell the story of Stanisław Ulam based on this fear of nuclear war, but with the cool rigor and logic of a mathematical formula. When Françoise next shows up, Stan is already proposing to her so that she, who also fled the war, can stay in the United States. In the second scene with her, she is already pregnant and afraid of the bomb her husband is working on. Klein, who also wrote the screenplay, does not bother with the film’s usual conventions, with multiple explanations, double and triple marks to help viewers digest the information. His scenes usually build on each other in a strictly logical manner. If you’re not careful, you won’t be able to keep up with the motives and motivations of the characters. But that’s not exhausting or cerebral, it makes the film rather elegant, like a clear, mathematical formula.
The camera often puts the viewer right between the characters – and yet stays away from them.
(Photo: Filmwelt Distribution)
It’s well thought out, but, like a formula, it’s all about logic, facts and reasoning, not emotions. Stan’s story is actually a very emotional one: the war in Europe, the relationship with his neglected brother, his love for Françoise and, last but not least, the burden of being a co-inventor of the most powerful weapon in human history. However, it is largely up to the viewer to empathize with what all this is doing to Stan and his fellow human beings. That’s not necessarily his problem, but a little more clues than Stan staring into the desert would have been necessary for an idea of his inner workings.
The camera also contributes to this. Klein and his cinematographer Tudor Vladimir Panduru often place them in the middle of the scene, working with few cuts and following the characters around the room. Filming and staging like this is demanding, you are in the midst of Harvard students’ parties or the scientists’ discussions. This makes the scenes alive and dynamic, but the viewer doesn’t build a relationship with the characters. They are proxies, facts, claims, yes: planets in an otherwise empty universe. Everything else is vague or, as Stan would explain, we can’t be sure of anything because there are no fixed points. But that’s exactly what Françoise liked.
Adventures of a Mathematician. Germany, Poland, United Kingdom 2020 – Director and script: Thorsten Klein. Camera: Tudor Vladimir Panduru. Starring: Philippe Tlokinski, Esther Garrel, Ryan Gage. Film world, 102 minutes.