Margherita’s theorem, the review of the film with Ella Rumpf

There is a long tradition of films that have dealt with mathematics, consequently reviewing those who have dedicated their lives to it. Partly because there is a natural attraction between directors and the most brilliant minds of a branch of the genre, given that the latter are known for being able to provide a completely different perspective on the world and reality. A quality that cannot fail to fascinate those who have also made a particular interpretation of the state of things their life mission, not to mention that there is a linguistic dimension that links cinema to mathematicsbringing the Seventh Art to a theoretical dimension much loved by important filmmakers.

Mathematics has been used narratively in many films, translated into different expressions, often overlapping, making mathematics a code that the character tries to decipher in order to understand himself. A bit like in the case of the film we are about to tell you about, that is Margherita’s theoremthe director’s new work Anna Novionpresented in the Special Screenings section of the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, in cinemas from 28 March 2024 with Wanted Cinema. A rather canonical title that links the coming of age to a series of imagery coming from the genre, focusing on humanization. There is a large part of the film that deals with the relationship with the protagonist’s mother, the young and brilliant mathematical mind of the moment played by the always excellent Ella Rumpf (winner of the 2024 César Award for best revelation), between the ghosts of an absent father and the nuances romancewith another mathematician played by Julien Frison. The idea of ​​setting the story within a suburban landscape in which a subplot takes place that could have been a much more mainstream film, as if Margherita’s theorem for a moment open the window towards another less existential but still valid path. Only to then return to focus on focus initial.

A mathematician in slippers

Marguerite (Ella Rumpf) is a PhD student in mathematics at the very prestigious École Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris and so attached to this nest that she has created for herself, where she is without a doubt the most brilliant and considered among the students, to even walk around in slippers. A peculiarity that does not fail to be noticed by the journalist who interviews her at the very beginning of Anna Novion’s film. As if the institute were a real new home for a girl who at first glance gives the idea of ​​having almost taken refuge within the university because she is eager to find a place in the world that, evidently, she first she had never discovered.

In short, the girl has finally built a safe place for herself where she can express herself, even if in doing so she has closed the doors to a part of the world, the one that cannot be read sounds like numbers, formulas and equations. However, it is not certain that this golden cage will last forever, after all, one cannot live under a glass dome forever, even if the protective wing of professor(one) Laurent Werner (the veteran Jean-Pierre Darroussin), his thesis supervisor, bodes well. Also because he should help her find one day, who knows, even the formula to prove Goldbach’s theory. One of the mythological creatures that all mathematicians in the world aspire to. But then, as often happens in life, something happens that not even a logical mind like Margherita’s could foresee.

The situation is altered by Lucas (Frison), a boy from Oxford sought out by Werner to help him get to the mythological creature mentioned above, perhaps because he didn’t think the girl was good enough or, at least, not that good. The new figure destabilizes the girl above all because she disproves her thesis in front of the most illustrious minds of the ENS. Traumatic event that leads the professor (the one who was supposed to protect her) to put her aside. Margherita reacts very badly and decides to abandon everything and leave mathematics forever, without however coming to terms with the fact that once you are used to seeing the world through a lens it is difficult to go back. Maybe he just needs to learn to accept that not everything in life is calculable and that a new arrival could even upset plans for the better.

Valid theorem, but already proven

Margherita’s theorem revolves around a rather elementary assumption (despite the film being full of very complicated mathematical calculations), namely that of presenting a girl who preferred to escape from comparison with herself, throughout his life, dedicating himself to deciphering other people’s theorems. A way to protect himself given the difficult relationship with a rather weak mother, played by Clotilde Courau (which is always a guarantee) and by an absent father. It is not a case that the betrayal of the professor into whom the girl had projected her father figure will be what leads her to fleeprecisely in a house in Paris, together with a dancer.

Here the whole suburban line opens up, in which the girl seeks a way to refocus on herself almost in a violent way, completely cuts off the part of her that has always been linked to mathematics and using it only to earn a living, defeating oriental customers in the game of Mahjong. This could open up an almost “alla Rain Man“, but the director returns to put the blackboards of life in front of her Margherita, the ones through which the girl searches for the solution to be able to prove the theorem of herself. A theorem that perhaps foresees both its part linked to mathematics and the other, more scared, who had until then shielded herself with it.

A rather canonical road that acquires credibility thanks to the evidence of the protagonists, primarily the one provided by Ella Rumpf, e particularity thanks to a photography that always looks at the contrast between warm and cold coloursplaying above all with the wallpaper and the interiors of the houses, where the girl takes the fundamental steps of her growth path. Margherita’s theorem it is a film that succeeds in its particular formula of coming of age counting on writing and interpretation and, thanks to its Northern European cinema system, also giving itself that particularity which, despite the predictability of the message and outcomesleads the viewer to keep it in his gaze.