Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives May 5, 2008
Posted by cathrynsymons in : Reviews , trackbackIn this BAFTA nominated documentary which rescreens this week, Mark Everett, indie rock star, explores the life and work of his father Hugh Everett III, who pioneered an innovative and controversial interpretation of quantum mechanics. Produced by Louise Lockwood for BBC Scotland, it originally aired on BBC4 in 2007, and will be shown again on BBC2 on Wednesday evening. You should be able to pick it up on iPlayer as well.
Mark Everett, also known as Mark E, or simply E, is the front-man and songwriter for alternative Los Angeles band the Eels, whose popularity in the UK is perhaps higher than it is in the States. Their biggest hit, Novocaine for the Soul, made number 10 on the UK singles chart in 1997, and their February tour was sold out in London.
25 years ago when Mark was 19, he found his father dead of a heart attack. He describes the scene as his most intimate experience with the father he barely knew. It was not until 2007, well after the early deaths of both his sister and mother, before he makes this documentary and learns more about his father’s life.
Hugh Everett III went to Princeton to do a PhD in 1953 under John Wheeler. It was an exciting time in physics, with the giants of the early 20th century such as Einstein and Neils Bohr still working and the promise of spectacular applications of science drawing in large amounts of funding for basic research.
Everett’s thesis postulated a theory which was a direct challenge to Bohr’s view of quantum mechanics. When Bohr refused to take his ideas seriously, Everett left academia for the military and later founded his own businesses. It was not until the late 1970s that his theories found wider acceptance, and he was rehabilitated into the scientific community shortly before his death in 1982.
Without becoming patronising or too simplistic, the scientists explain his theories to Mark Everett who has no scientific background and confesses to having failed 9th grade algebra.
Like parallel lines, the parallel lives of the title never quite meet, but share characteristics, and perhaps similar personalities. As he meets the people who were part of his father’s life, the gap between their world and his is deep. He is meeting people who worked with Bohr and Einstein, but doesn’t seem terribly impressed with that. A young ‘Everettian’ physicist who works on his father’s theory is delighted to meet his hero’s son, but doesn’t seem aware of Mark Everett’s own fame.
The father is described by a close friend as being proud of his son ‘if he had the emotional vocabulary to express it’. Mark goes through a very difficult process showing little overt emotion yet the film exudes a strong sense of suppressed grief. At one point, he sorts boxes of papers he has left unopened, and finds a set of tapes. The tape he plays has his fathers voice and the family cat purring (a subtle play on Schrödinger?) . Mark’s face is a study in keeping it together as he listens. He is his father’s son, although he expresses himself through his music while the father appears to have had no such outlet.
The parallel between the famous physicist and the famous rock musician reflects the way that physics and music often go together. Werner Heisenberg was an accomplished pianist. More famously, though less classically, Richard Feynmann played the bongos. And here, the Eels soundtrack brings the son’s music together with the father’s science.
The film is simply made, with a camera following Mark Everett around as he meets the people his father knew, sees where he worked at Princeton, and visits the family graves. His exploration is punctuated by monologues at railway stations with yet more parallel lines
This is a quiet and affectionate film, well worth seeing if you have the chance.
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