A mathematician seeks truth but forgets to carry the human heart.
Polish director Krzysztof Zanussi once more explores the dilemma of intellectualism at the expense of humanity in 1982's Imperative. The story concerns math professor Robert Powell, who feels that there is something lacking in his ever-so-precise life. What is missing is truth, specifically philosophical truth. Thus he philosophizes at great length, allowing director Zanussi plenty of room for didactic but little room for warmth. Leading ladies Brigette Fossey and Leslie Caron occasionally melt through the cold logic of Imperative.
Acting
Brigitte Fossey and Leslie Caron thawing the frost
Direction
Zanussi's clinical precision mirroring its subject
Director
Krzysztof Zanussi
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Shot during Poland's martial law period, the film's intellectual claustrophobia mirrors real political suffocation. Zanussi smuggled existential crisis past censors by making it personal, not political.
Robert Powell took the role fresh from playing Jesus in 'Jesus of Nazareth'—casting Augustin as a secular martyr searching for transcendence through equations instead of miracles.
US
