In some of the screenings, mathematicians have said it’s the first time they feel that people of their profession are played authentically.Jeremy Irons (left) and Dev Patel (right) star in “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” a film about pioneering mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. We went to great lengths so that the actors could feel confident in all the dialogue as well. Whenever Ramanujan points at a formula, it’s the right formula. Every single page of the notebooks is reproduced. I worked with Ken Ono, one of the top mathematicians in the world. If there were more commercial factors going on here, it would have been easier.Īnd how authentic were you with the math? When we finally did get to make the movie, we had the constraints of an independent film trying to make a broader, sweeping epic. It was incredibly frustrating on that level. At a certain point we were offered an opportunity to make the film if we would only make Ramanujan fall in love with a white nurse at Trinity. What was the biggest challenge making the movie? Because I think that’s the only way that we are able to recognize outliers and encourage talent. I was blown away by the story between these two people and what it means for us to be open in society and for people to get past themselves to be able to connect. It was always the background to a human story.
What made you want to do a film about mathematicians? It’s a funny thing, but it’s difficult as a filmmaker when you have one hour to shoot the scene and you need it to be sunny in rainy England. In his mind, if he holds up an umbrella, it’s definitely not going to rain because God is going to spite him. Hardy carrying an umbrella on a sunny day? Trinity College allowed us to shoot on their campus, which is the first time they’ve allowed that to happen. This is one of the few scenes we got outside and we were able to incorporate some Steadicam and movement to what is some heavy, serious dialogue.
We had so many interior scenes behind desks and in classrooms. What was exciting for you shooting this scene?
It looks at the early 20th-century collaboration between Srinivasa Ramanujan (Mr. The story of a mathematical partnership is told in the film “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” written and directed by Matthew Brown.