Lagrange

Historians recount Lagrange’s European career, and show how the one-time Academician and protégé of the aristocracy became a teacher in charge of educating the new Citizens in the wake of the French Revolution. They raise the issue of the involvement of scientists in the political life of that era.

Lagrange [Documentaire scientifique IHP]

Scientists, including Cédric Villani and Jacques Laskar, explain how Lagrange's work, notably in analysis and celestial mechanics, pioneered a new way of considering problems; they allow us to understand his own positioning, at the boundary between mathematics and physics, and his continuing influence on science and the way it is taught. Lagrange remains a recurring name in modern-day mathematics and physics (Lagrange equations, Lagrange points, Lagrange polynomials, Lagrangian, ...), and yet the life of this great scientist of the Age of Enlightenment has undeservedly remained in obscurity...

Production : Cédric Villani, Jean-Philippe Uzan
Scientific adviser : Frédéric Brechenmacher

Director : Quentin Lazzarotto

Coproduction with CNRS Images. Partnership with l'Institut Lagrange de Paris
Acknowledgements : Bruno Belhoste - Anne-Sophie Bonnet-Bendhia - Jenny Boucard - Alberto Conte - Laurent Guin - Eberhard Knobloch - Jacques Laskar - Thomas Morel - Maria Munoz -  Luigi Pepe - Jérôme Pérez - Silvia Roero.This film has been supported by the Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP), CNRS, the Pierre and Marie Curie University, with funding from Labex Carmin.