“He was ALWAYS there!” This was the reaction of CERN scientists who spent years being followed by film-maker Mark Levinson. The result is Particle Fever – a feature-length documentary about CERN, which has been touring cinemas and festivals, reaching audiences far beyond particle physics. Why? Because Levinson manages to capture, through his narrative and character-driven piece, a compelling story of passion, disaster, loss and then triumph. It is not “boy meets girl”, but scientists build accelerator, scientists lose accelerator (in the September 2008 incident), scientists get accelerator running again and find elusive particle – cue thunderous applause.
The film focuses on a handful of CERN characters, from the ATLAS experiment mainly: Fabiola Gianotti, Martin Aleksa and Monica Dunford, together with Mike Lamont from the accelerator side. While this skews the film away from the reality of thousands of collaborating physicists, it enables a picture to form through the eyes of these protagonists of passionate people working together towards a common goal. Levinson weaves in US-based theorists David Kaplan, Nima Arkani-Hamed and Savas Dimopoulos to stitch together a dramatic narrative of a mighty quest for the Higgs boson. In being swept along by the action, the audience is also taught a fair amount of physics with the help of beautifully designed graphics. My most memorable scene is the moment of the first LHC collisions, where Levinson’s use of music and kaleidoscopic imagery leaves the audience captivated by the almost spiritual exaltation of this scientific achievement.
This US film-maker aiming at a US audience has, inevitably, made an American film, with gutsy postdoc Monica and self-assured theorists. A great deal of the film is dominated by American accents, so much so that I felt that the international spirit of CERN became somewhat neglected. Nonetheless, Monica delivers a spectacular performance and was by far my favourite “character”, with her candid pieces to camera and analogies: “The entire control room is like a group of six-year-olds whose birthday is next week…and there’ll be cake.”
There is something incredibly heart-warming about watching your place of work portrayed dramatically on the big screen. Goosebumps came in waves with the film’s twists and turns, and I came away thinking “Wow, I work there.” As a result, I pity my poor family, who will all have to watch this at Christmas, whether they want to or not!
• Particle Fever is currently touring cinemas and festivals, and is available to buy as an HD download worldwide from 15 July. For more details, see http://particlefever.com/.
