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\title{Review of Frenkel's film\\ {\it Rites of Love and Math}}
\author{Rob Kirby}



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On 1 December, 2010, I saw a {\it triple feature}, Mishima's Rites of
Love and Death, Frenkel's Rites of Love and Math, with comments by
Frenkel himself introducing the first movie, then the second, and
finally summing up with questions and answers.  I believe the three
parts should be seen together; in particular Frenkel's movie is an
homage to Mishima's, and is best understood when in combination.
Frenkel's comments were interesting, provided pertinent information
about the symbolism and links between the movies, and were done with
charm and humor.

Mishima was a famous Japanese author and poet who wanted to make a
movie and finally did so in 1965.  It is based on a historical
incident in 1935 during which a band of soldiers, loyal to the
emperor, overthrow the corrupt (in their eyes) government.  They are
at first successful, the emperor is silent, but then he forcefully
indicates that the soldiers are to be captured and executed.

Mishima's short movie takes place on a Noh stage and is described
nicely by Lehning.  It is a silent movie and the plot is outlined by
five scrolls which are unwrapped for the audience to read. There is
music accompanying the movie, taken from a 1935 orchestral-only
rendition of the Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, an apt
choice.  The seppuku is very graphic, as Lehning says, and many of the
audience looked away.

Five years after the movie was made, Mishima and a small band of
followers took a general hostage and demanded the assembly of the
general's troops so that Mishima could address them.  He did so, but
he failed to arouse them and only got jeers and disrespect.  Mishima
then retreated to a room and committed seppuku as {\it foreshadowed} by
his movie.  Mishima's wife destroyed all prints of the movie (which
had been shown worldwide to some acclaim).  On her death, it was
discovered that the negatives had been stored in a jar of tea leaves,
and prints were then made public in 2008.  Frenkel saw the movie and
got his final inspiration.

Frenkel had wanted to make a movie that would explain the beauty of
math in an artistic way.  While on leave in Paris, he met a French
film director, Reine Graves, and they discussed various possibilities
and thought of a “formula for love”.  Frenkel then discovered a
Russian poem which, translated to English, appears on the scroll that
the audience reads.  After seeing the Mishima movie, it all came
together.  Frenkel liked the idea of a Russian mathematician living in
Berkeley, collaborating in Paris and making a movie that takes place
in a Noh theater.  It is international, like math.

Frenkel explained various bits of symbolism.  Mishima's movie has a
painting on the back wall of the Noh theater with a Japanese word
which could be translated as {\it truth}.  Frenkel and Graves have an
analogous painting with the Russian word for truth, and the
Mathematician's lover's name, Mariko, means truth in Japanese.
Frenkel also uses the Liebestod as the background music, but a version
from 1965 (date of Mishima's movie).  The tattooing is done in
a frenzy, so as to be finished before the Mathematician is
discovered; to indicate this frenzy, the music switches to a rock
version of the Liebestod composed by a local musician.  In Frenkel's movie,
seppuku is achieved, much less graphically, by the Mathematician
plunging the tattoo needle into his heart.

An important part of the evening was Frenkel's introduction, his
explanation of various points, and the question and answer session at
the end.  It was all done intelligently with humor and an infectious
smile.


An interesting sidelight is the controversy which arose previous to
this showing.  The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, MSRI, had
considered showing Frenkel's film, in keeping with its occasional
sponsorship of events connecting math and the arts.  MSRI's director,
Robert Bryant, had read some of Mishima's works in college and had
seen the full length feature film on Mishima by the Hollywood
screenwriter and director, Paul Schrader.  Bryant, and others at MSRI,
had seen both films, and found them uncontroversial except perhaps for
the graphic seppuku scene in Mishima's film. There were positive
reviews from Europe, especially after the film was shown at the
Fantasy Film Festival (when, where?). But nothing concrete happened
until the Berkeley Film and Video Society decided to show Frenkel's
film and rented a movie theater in downtown Berkeley.  They also made
a short trailer, available on line at the time.  MSRI was approached
and only then did Bryant agree to MSRI's cosponsorship.

The trailer contained two short excerpts from the movie, the
love-making and the tattooing.  Like a poem, the trailer could be
interpreted in different ways depending on the viewer's perspective.
In this case, a number of viewers of the trailer were offended,
interpreting it as sexist with the Mathematician as male and creator
of great math and the lover as merely a female with a belly to be
tattooed.  On Monday, Nov 22nd, Bryant began to get emails of protest.
The emails soon went viral with well over 200 arriving in the next few
days. Some pointed out that it could cause female mathematicians to be
less likely to visit MSRI in the future. Bryant corresponded at length
with the protesters, almost all of whom had seen only the
trailer. Eventually he felt that the only suitable response was for
him to withdraw MSRI's cosponsorship.  A number of people wrote in to
express their thanks.

















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