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(Message started by: imnotbub on Aug 14th, 2006, 10:40am)

Title: Pi
Post by imnotbub on Aug 14th, 2006, 10:40am
I received the copy of the move Pi I ordered over the weekend. I have now watched it twice. A little wierd, as there are three different threads going on at the same time, different, but related. This guy is definately getting hit with CH's. Too bad the film didn't get more exposure. Might have enlightened a few people. My wife sees the beast in a slightly different light now.
Anybody else see it? Opinions?


Steve

Title: Re: Pi
Post by nani on Aug 14th, 2006, 10:52am
I thought it was pretty weird, and a little, um, over my head...but really:
who of us hasn't considered the drill thing?  :-/

Title: Re: Pi
Post by georgej on Aug 14th, 2006, 11:09am
Hi Steve,

After reading Shadow's post about it, I rented it from Netflix and watched it again on Saturday--for the second time.  This time I paid particular attention to the H/A symptoms the main character displayed.  Liz (my wife) watched it with me, and I asked her to observe as well--she's one of the only people who've seen me take a hit.

I think that wherever they got the background information from for portraying his H/A's, some of it must have come from an actual clusterhead.  According to Shadow, the background came from a female actress, who may have been misdiagnosed with migraine.

Much of what I saw was very familiar--particularly the speed of onset, the obvious one-sidedness (the character's a righty) and the intensity of pain.  The character was also unable to remain still--he paced, writhed, and screamed.  At one point, he clipped off a section of hair on the headache side in order to observe his swollen blood vessels.  I used to look at the swollen vessels under the skin as well, in a mirror.  Don't do it anymore, because I find it alarming.

I did not see any portrayal of some of the secondary characteristics--tearing eye, etc.  I empathized very strongly when he injected himself in the side of the head, and when he used a drill in an effort to "get at" the pain.  Who hasn't fantasized something similar?

Other things were less familiar.  Passing out, for instance.  I know that some people do, but I've never done it.  Also the nosebleed afterward.  That's never happened to me.  I was also interested when he used a marker on his shaved head to "mark off" the pain area.  A golden rectangle--which fit with other things in the movie.  I thought it was too far back on the head--more in the area of the temporal lobe, almost to the occiput.  (As a goofy aside, I once painted half my face on Halloween to portray a CH--bright red and yellow near the eye and across the temple, fading to greens and blues on the forehead, and extending down the back of the neck to "heat up" to a dull red at the base of the neck.)

FWIW, Liz agreed.  She said that the character's reactions to the headache resembled what she'd seen in me.  Particularly when I was younger.  (That's before I turned into a CH old fart who's been there and done that so many times that I've grown to be tougher than boiled owl sh&t.)

Interesting that having the headaches involved some sort of "exchange" between the headache and some unrelated gift.  In the character's case, it was his mathematical gift.  Losing the headaches meant losing the gift.  I think that's a natural human reaction--that in order for the universe to have balance, something must be received for something suffered.  

I've often speculated (idly, not seriously) that I should be receiving SOMETHING in exchange for these, but for the life of me, I've never figured out what it might be.

Not great cinema, but worth watching--especially for one of us.  

Regards,

George      

Title: Re: Pi
Post by acidcase on Aug 14th, 2006, 11:26am
I saw the film some time ago, i thought it was brilliant its in my top 10 !!

Title: Re: Pi
Post by vig on Aug 14th, 2006, 11:57am
I thought it was a cool movie.



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