Le Théorème de Marguerite is a movie that had its first showing at the Cannes Film Festival last year, and the protagonist played by Ella Rumpf had a great deal of praise winning a César award early this year as Best Female Revelation.
Marguerite is a brilliant young college graduate that is working on a demanding thesis about the Goldbach’s conjecture, one of the oldest unsolved problems in number theory in all mathematics. When she is interviewed at the beginning of the story we get a gist of the girl: glasses, nervous, socially awkward, always with slippers on her feet because she says “they are more comfortable”. (Movie distributor PRIS)
When her thesis is contested in her presentation by a young attractive boy that is the new star of the math department she develops a grudge against her mentor Professor Werner. She leaves college and tries do erase her identity by working in a sports store as a seller and moving in to an apartment with a cool if freeloading dancer called Noa. She then discovers the world of mahjong, in which she uses her math skills to win and will help her pay the bills of the house.
When she is contacted again by her old mentor Werner and by Lucas the boy from her thesis presentation, she decides to go back and give another go at the Goldbach. In the mean time she falls in love.
Film about mathematicians is not usually the most cinematic thing to see on the big screen. There were some good movies in the past such as “The Imitation Game” or “A Beautiful Mind”, although they were based in true fact they were filmed as thrillers, so kind of kept us glued to the screens. “Le Théorème de Marguerite” has a lot of beautiful blackboard and chalk shots, but for people who are not math masters it might get a little long-winded and overwhelming.
The most valuable thing is the casting, all the actors are very good, specially swiss actress Ella Rumpf - she makes Marguerite a relatable nerdy young girl that is discovering sexuality and the world around her, we really wish her to succeed at the end of the story.
#Le Théorème de Marguerite