I.Q.
(1994)
Time's
Person of the CenturyIt's time for a list of real (not fictional) mathematicians (and mathematical physicists) who are featured in motion pictures. Links are to my writeups on these films. Additional suggestions are welcome.
Cartesius (1974) TV biography by Roberto Rossellini. Anyone know where to find a copy?
I.Q.
(1994)
Time's
Person of the Century
The late Walter Matthau plays Einstein. Lou Jacobi is Kurt Gödel. A character search at imdb.com retrieves over two dozen films with Einstein as a character. (photo)
"A mathematician is a machine that converts coffee into theorems."
Several other mathematicians appear in this film. See the credits. (photo)
"Mathematics is a language. It's very difficult. It's subtle. You couldn't say those things any other way - and I can talk to dead people with it. I talk to Copernicus every day." (photo)
A Brief History of Time (1992)
Several other mathematicians and astrophysicists, including Roger Penrose, are interviewed in this film. See the credits.
Hawkings is
also featured in the PBS series
Stephen
Hawking's Universe.
the real John Nash, Russell Crowe
& Ron Howard courtesy of
Universal Pictures.
There is also a new film called Enigma (2001) that dramatizes what happened at Bletchley Park without mentioning Turing.
Fermat's
Last Theorem (1997) A BBC program on Wiles proof and its
tribulations. A transcript of the program is available online.
"...a musical fantasia based on the true encounter between mathematician Andrew Wiles and Fermat's last theorem..." Other characters include Euclid, Carl Friedrich Gauss, Pythagoras, Pierre de Fermat , Sir Isaac Newton
Suggestions welcome!
