StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Palaest recommended

Rijndri Load of rubbish!!

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Robert J. Maxwell Blaise Pascal died at the age of 39 in 1662, a contemporary of René Descartes. We don't hear nearly as much about Pascal as we do about Descartes. Of course Pascal never said anything as memorable as "I think, therefore I am." But he DID say something like "the heart has its reasons which the mind will never know" and "men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction" and (my favorite)"Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere."It's my favorite because I don't understand it. I can't tell whether Pascal was channeling Euclid or Joseph Campbell was channeling Pascal.Of course that's neither here nor there. Pascal came from a sort of upper-middle class French family, not overly liked because its Catholocism was at the time démodé. However the kid was a genius. It's impossible to list his achievements which ranged from the material to the philosophical. He has several things named after him -- units of measurement, mathematical tricks, and the like -- and even a spiritual notion called "Pascal's choice." Pascal figured that you could either believe in God and act accordingly -- or not. If God didn't exist, the outcome would be the same, but if he or she DID exist, then believing would get you into heaven, while disbelief would take you elsewhere. I'm vulgarizing all this, naturally. For a fuller analysis, kindly read my forthcoming tome that explains everything, "I, Who Know Nothing."The movie. Made for TV although you'd never know it. The production design is exquisite. And the actor who portrays Pascal, Pierre Arditi, bears a striking resemblance to the death mask Pascal left behind. He was always sickly, and Arditi gets this across too. He's often too weak to walk unaided, and his head is declined sideway so that it seems almost to be resting on his shoulder. His sickness wasn't feigned either. Nobody's head is wrenched off, yet it's a very engaging film. Roberto Rossellini has done a fine job of directing it. No point is spelled out in capital letters but only handed to the viewer matter of factly. Did you know that Pascal built one of the first computers, a bread-box sized device that could do arithmatic up to and incuding multiplication? I didn't.

henryhertzhobbit I started this film by watching the movie "The Flowers of Saint Francis" which is of course is in Italian before it at TCM. Not knowing who Rosselini is I was surprised to see that this film is in French with subtitles. It is a bit long but Rosselini did a fair job on most aspects but one. It didn't show how Blaise Pascal used his analytical mathematical mind as applied through the Jansenist movement of the Catholic church to shatter certain dogmatic beliefs of that church. Pascal was highly influential in changing religious beliefs which were rigorously thought out by him. Even novices could see his thinking was better.I noticed another reviewer mentioning the Pascal programming language. The Pascal computer language was used primarily by colleges and universities to develop analytical thinking. It never was widely used for real world purposes due to its lack of modularity.What I was surprised not to see was Pascal's Triangle. I could care less that it was known by earlier civilizations like Arabs, Indians, and others before then. Pascal didn't know that so he reinvented it. Besides Pascal's Triangle being applied to the binomial coefficients it is also used in other areas of Mathematics like Algebra, Combinatorics and what Pascal used it for which was Probability. I really do have a degree in Mathematics so I was disappointed that the film tried to show religious and other conflicts just to spice it up. It could have been done better on this aspect to show how truly remarkable Blaise Pascal was in shaping a new direction the world went that was just as influential as what Rene Descartes did in Philosophy. They missed the mark by focusing too much on conflicts with others.

gavin6942 Blaise Pascal struggles to understand the natural world around him, in addition to an inner quest for religious faith.When you say "made for TV", that general gives the impression it will be of a lower quality. At least traditionally; today's television is on par with the cinema. Now, "Blaise Pascal" is different, because this is high-quality and directed by Roberto Rossellini. Wow.Pascal is an interesting person to make a film about, because he was hugely influential in religion and science... but today seems more or less forgotten. He had a programming language named for him that no one uses anymore. And he is featured in philosophy classes for his "wager", though the logic behind it is flawed. Who today has read his "Pensees"?

tentender Possibly the most beautiful of Rossellini's "history" films, now available on DVD, and most welcome. The subject matter might seem more likely for Bresson -- the religious and intellectual trials of a 17th century Jansenist -- and indeed this film feels quite Bressonian. With the enormous and unexpected success of "La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV," Rossellini seems to have discovered a way to make historical films that are at once sober and informative yet at the same time intriguing as dramas of internal conflict and growth. "Blaise Pascal" is probably his most austere film (though visually sumptuous), its external conflict consisting of little more than the vain efforts of Pascal's family to keep him from overwork. And yet one becomes deeply involved in Pascal's conflicts. I saw this wonderful picture shortly after it came out (at the MOMA in New York) and it made a profound impression. I am happy to say that my evergreen memory was not in the least tarnished by a re-viewing.