Habitación de Fermat, La (2007)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Directors:

Luis Piedrahita
Rodrigo Sopeña

Writers:

Luis Piedrahita (written by)
Rodrigo Sopeña (written by)

Release Date:

16 November 2007 (Spain)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Think inside the box

Plot:

Four mathematicians who do not know each other are invited by a mysterious host on the pretext of resolving a great enigma...

Plot Keywords:

Mathematical Equation | Clue | Rowboat | Mathematics | Gas Station

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Lluís Homar	...	Hilbert
Alejo Sauras	...	Galois
Elena Ballesteros	...	Oliva
Santi Millán	...	Pascal
Federico Luppi	...	Fermat
Helena Carrión	...	Bibliotecaria
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Núria Badia	...	Recepcionist
Víctor Benjumea	...	Chico Gasolinera
Ariadna Cabrol	...	Girl
Cesc Cornet	...	Boy
Juanma Falcón	...	Boy
Alicia Fernández	...	Girl
David Fernández	...	Policeman
Josep Minguell	...	Doctor
Adam Nached	...	Boy
Mariola Ruiz	...	Nurse
San Yélamos	...	Girl

Also Known As:

Fermat's Room (International: English title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Company:

Notro Films

Quotes:

Galois: You think it'll resist?
Pascal: Pressure is unpredictable. It can turn coal into dust or a diamond.
Hilbert: Was that Archimedes?
Pascal: No, MacGyver.

Movie Connections:

References Labyrinth (1986)

Soundtrack:

Preludio en Si menor BWV 855

Every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two primes.

That's Goldbach's conjecture.And that's the starting point of this gripping suspenseful Spanish film.As Amenabar has already shown ,Spain has become the land of the thriller in Europa.

By fusing several elements,the director brings it all back home: the enigmas are borrowed from the "saw" saga (but without any gore and with special effects kept to the minimum);the place reminds me of that of "Cube" ;there are also elements taken from Christie's classic "Ten little Indians" aka "And then there were none" " (guests invited in a remote place,the host is to kill us but actually he is one of us;and of course they have done something wrong before).

Mathematics come to the fore,and you can write down the problems for you won't have plenty of time to solve them.Some of them are classics,as the young math genius points out: the three children and the story of the shepherd,the wolf ,the sheep and the cabbage.All the actors are excellent,and the fact that Lluis Hornar resembles Laurence Olivier makes you sometimes think of "sleuth".

The ending is borrowed from "Le Theoreme du Perroquet" (by Daniel Guedj) another book which blends a detective story and the history of maths.In that book ,they tried to prove a theorem which Andrew Wiles ,an English mathematician finally proved in 1993.That was Fermat's conjecture.

This is a thriller which is to be recommended.