Physicists
and philosophers like to argue thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and chaos
theory have vanquished Pierre-Simon Laplace’s theory of strict causal
determinism, thereby restoring our free will. A group of scientists would like
to agree, even though they have been working to create Laplacian predictive
models. Finding themselves in a Rube Goldbergian death trap programmed with a revolutionary
equation that anticipates their every move has dramatically changed their
outlook. Thanks to science, there is a good chance they’re all doomed in
Giordano Giulvi’s The Laplace’s Demon (trailer here), which screens
during the 2017 Fantasia International Film Festival.
Isaac’s
team of scientists have been working on models to predicts how many shards a
crystal glass will shatter into when dropped from a table. They have refined it
to within a two percent margin of error. Evidently, there host has advanced far
beyond them. Frankly, he is not even there anymore. According to the videotape
he left behind for them to watch, he just entered them into his fateful formula
and programmed the output into his island villa of death.
Through
computer automization, the absentee host will pick off his guests one by one,
because he can calculate exactly where they will be at any given moment. They
will even be able to watch it happen in real time through the scale model and
pre-programmed chess pieces he left behind, unless they can figure out a way to
cheat fate and science.
Laplace is a bizarre but
wildly distinctive film that represents a quantum leap forward for Giordano
Giulvi and his co-screenwriter-co-star Duccio Giulvi from the grungy-goofy Apollo 54. Shot in dramatically stylish
black-and-white, it is like a strange puree of Pi, Saw, and And Then There
Were None. The film is driven by some heady speculation regarding free will
and scientific determinism, but people are still getting killed dead at regular
intervals.
Arguably,
characterization was not this film’s top priority, but Duccio Giulvi and
Silvano Bertolin quite effectively establish the film’s two poles, as the
unpredictably eccentric Jim Bob and fatalistic Karlheinz, respectively.
However, the art and set design, also overseen by G. Giulvi is absolutely
crucial to the film’s success. Most people would agree it is hard to pull off
human-sized killer chess pieces, but Giulvi manages to do it.
