Educational Media Reviews Online

Quantum theory is one of the crowning achievements of twentieth century physics, but it's also one of the least understandable to the layperson. Unfortunately, this film requires repeated viewings for the viewer to glean any understanding of light or quantum physics.

A team of European researchers, including the 2012 winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics, is introduced one at a time over heroic music that would not be out of place in a blockbuster superhero movie. Since most scientists are not native English speakers, the subtitles are essential. These scientists are enthusiastic about their work, and they thoughtfully gaze at and show off equipment in their laboratories. What is the goal of all this activity and what does the behavior they observe tell us about the universe? Fragments of research are described, but no systematic connection is drawn among them nor is there an explanation of how it supports quantum physics.

Prof. Serge Haroche, co-winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics, talks about his work studying the interaction of matter and light. His interview from 26:36 to 31:07 is the most illuminating segment, with background and history missing in most of the film. In other sections, counterintuitive quantum phenomena are described, e.g., a light can be on and off simultaneously or an atom can go right and left at the same time, without further explanation. In the new field of quantum computing a bit can be zero and one simultaneously, but why is this useful? The phenomenon of entanglement appears halfway through the film with only a little discussion of what it is and why it's important to these researchers.

There is a great deal of lovely classical music as we hear at different times strings, a piano, a sublime vocal duet from the opera Lakme, and Papageno and Papagena from The Magic Flute. In one sequence, a photon is pronounced dead, and we hear part of Mozart's Requiem Mass. There are many lovely visual sequences, but they don't always relate to what is being described. The film was sponsored by the Finnish Cultural Foundation Science Workshop on Entanglement. According to the director's web site, "The documentary tells one of the mysteries that have fascinated humanity since the beginning, that is the nature of light." The film little more than whets the viewer's appetite for more explanation and context.