Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16862 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-01-12
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 85 minutes

Amazon.com
Patterns exist everywhere: in nature, in science, in religion, in business. Max Cohen (played hauntingly by Sean Gullette) is a mathematician searching for these patterns in everything. Yet, he's not the only one, and everyone from Wall Street investors, looking to break the market, to Hasidic Jews, searching for the 216-digit number that reveals the true name of God, are trying to get their hands on Max. This dark, low-budget film was shot in black and white by director Darren Aronofsky. With eerie music, voice-overs, and overt symbolism enhancing the somber mood, Aronofsky has created a disturbing look at the world. Max is deeply paranoid, holed up in his apartment with his computer Euclid, obsessively studying chaos theory. Blinding headaches and hallucinogenic visions only feed his paranoia as he attempts to remain aloof from the world, venturing out only to meet his mentor, Sol Robeson (Mark Margolis), who for some mysterious reason feels Max should take a break from his research. This movie is complex--occasionally too complex--but the psychological drama and the loose sci-fi elements make this a worthwhile, albeit consuming, watch. Pi won the Director's Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. --Jenny Brown

From The New Yorker
This super-low-budget début by Darren Aronofsky is a noir-like metaphysical sci-fi flick, shot in grainy black-and-white, about a mathematical genius who believes he's found a formula that describes the chaos of the stock market. He's pursued by Wall Street thugs and, in true crackpot absurdity, a Cabala sect that believes he's unlocked a secret of the Scriptures. Aronofsky's delirious, Kafkaesque writing and imaginatively distorted camerawork don't quite add up, but it's fascinating, hallucinogenic film work. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Masterpiece!
You need to see this. Period.

Pi is a gritty film with perfect pacing and an inventive story line. Enough folks here have discussed their interpretation and relevance of the film. See for yourself.

A head trip that will leave you wondering...
The grainy black and white photography in this film is just one of its many compelling aspects. It's all about mathematics, the number Pi, Euclid, Pythagoras, the Golden Ratio, the spiral pattern, Jewish mysticism, the stock market, and a very strange computer operated by a troubled man, Max Cohen. A shadowy group wants the information in his mind: a 216-digit number that is apparently the key to a lot of things--and spells out the true name of God, according to a Rabbi. Max suffers in the meantime from excruciating headaches, possibly the result of having stared into the sun when he was a small boy. But he's also got a strange welt/mark on his scalp that may have something to do with his problems too.
If you don't mind doing some thinking while watching a film, then this is a good choice for you. Don't expect everything to get tied up neatly at the end; this is not standard fare.

Aronofsky at his edgy best
A real film noir cult classic in black and white. Not for the squeamish, this sci-fi thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat as you follow Maximiliam Cohen on the quest for the most important discovery of his life. He's trying to decode the numerical pattern beneath the ultimate system of ordered chaos -- the stock market. He teeters on the edge of insanity, and he uncovers a secret for which everyone is willing to kill.