Blaise Pascal

Not without interesting aspects, including some coverage of his invention of a mechanical calculator that could be seen as a precursor to the computer, but it never really crystallizes as a consideration of the relationship between science and religion, and the long death scene at the end doesn’t help.

Distinctive depiction that shows how remarkable Pascal was. The narrative focus specially on Bascal's inventions and his philosophical, mathematical, theological and physical thoughts and works. His personal life and disease are the circunstances of his life, not the main focus of the plot. The plot gives spirituallity the proper relevance; the last third of the movie is incredibly touching - the last rites scenes is quite moving.

Going into Rossellini's history films, I knew their reputation for being overwhelmingly "dry" and didactic, but I guess I was sort of expecting (hoping?) for something more formally rigorous and austere, a la Bresson or even Straub/Huillet. What they are instead is more functionally bland than anything. Fortunately, Pascal is an interesting enough figure to somewhat make up for what this lacks in cinematic interest. It's basically a film of philosophical dialogue, but i often found it moving.

It's accurate on details of Pascal's life as far as I could tell, but it's quite boring, and doesn't show us the real importance of his inventions. Read about him in Wiki while you see this.

One of Rossellini's history films, he seems more interested in communicating ideas rather than narrative. This certainly creates a unique context and forces engagement through the intellectual more than the experiential. The camera moves beautifully here, often highlighting certain objects or even tensions between people based on its placement and movement. Rossellini also makes only limited use of the close-up, making those few shots more evocative in the overall scheme of the film.