Coluna Claquete – December, 28th 2012
Movie of the Week: “Life of Pi”
Although other significant titles, the year 2012 was closed with one of the most amazing movies of recent times, a dreamlike journey “Life of Pi” by Taiwanese director Ang Lee, author of works as diverse as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” or “Brokeback Mountain.”
His personal characteristics are extremely impressive in his films, which is already evident in the first few minutes of “Life of Pi”, with the beautiful and disconcerting images that define the identity of the narrator.
The story is narrated by adult Pi (Irrfan Khan), an Indian who lives in the French part of Canada. He talks with a writer (Rafe Spall) who lives a creative crisis, and that a mutual friend sent, saying that, in the end, he would have more than a book.
The life of Pi was always unusual. His real name, Piscine Molitor Patel, was given in honor of a French swimming pool where a family friend had swum. The problem is that the word “piscine” sounded like a pimp term, which put the kid in a bad situation at school. His strategy was to adopt the nickname Pi, and know everything about the famous irrational number, in order to adopt it.
As a child, Pi suffered the influence of his mother (Tabu), a devout Hindu, counterbalanced by her father (Adil Hussain), a rationalist down-to-earth, who did not believe in religions. Restless, the boy tried other ways, such as Christianity and Islam. This personal ecumenism only had space in conservative India because he belonged to a cult home, with intelligent parents.
The father had created a private zoo in the former French part of India. However, with the departure of Europeans and subsequent loss of support from local government, the solution was to sell the animals to foreign zoos, and the family emigrated to Canada.
To the adolescent Pi (Suraj Sharma) was a shock, not only by the loss of his world, but the nascent love for Anandi (Shravanthi Sainath), a beautiful dance student that he had met while replacing a music teacher.
Thus, the family boarded a freighter heading to their new country. During a storm in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the ship sank, and Pi survived in a boat with four strangers companions: a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a powerful Bengal tiger whose name was Richard Parker.
Trying to survive, Pi witnessed the animals kill each other, finally resting him and the tiger in a tiny boat. The days and nights succeeding, Pi searched strategies for survival, reaching the craziest of all conclusions: for him to survive, the tiger must be well fed.
The journey is marked by strange encounters with jellyfishes and whales, sharks and flying fishes, while the young man seeks to preserve his own life and sanity. The finding of an island filled with meerkats and freshwater reveals to be a deadly trap from which they are forced to escape.
When he finally reaches the Mexican coast, and is rescued, no one can believe in such fantasious adventure. How could a human survive many days in the company of a wild beast? Another version is suggested by Pi, but what could be more true, the coexistence with a wild animal or the savagery of man itself?
“Life of Pi” is not a movie for a direct reading, being more a work full of symbolism, an interesting mix of religious concepts and the human condition. Maybe there are more suggestions of questions than answers, leaving the viewer to make their owns.
The film is a visual and sonore spectacle that must have been well used in 3D views, since many scenes exploited this sense of depth. Like the other films of Ang Lee, the soundtrack and the landscapes are stunning, making it difficult to distinguish what was real and what was created on computer.
“Life of Pi” is based on an homonymous book written by Iann Martel, whom newspapers in several countries accused of stealing ideas from the novel “Max and the felines” written by Brazilian Moacyr Scliar, who died last year. Published in 1981, Scliar’s book tells the story of Max, a German boy who, after a shipwreck, finds himself confined to a small boat with a jaguar. In the introduction to his book, Martel acknowledges that was inspired by Scliar idea .
Controversies aside, “Life of Pi” is one of the best movie moments of the year 2012, but will not please all audiences. But if you belong to the group of open hearts and minds, do not miss this jewel.
Original Title: “Life of Pi”