Main Cast: Karl Johnson, Michael Gough, Tilda Swinton, John Quentin, Kevin Collins
Release Year: 1993
Country: UK
Run Time: 75 minutes
Plot
Derek Jarman directed this witty, stylish biography of the life of the eccentric 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (Karl Johnson). Wittgenstein is shown as a boy living a repressive youth, demonstrated by his family appearing in Roman togas. When Wittgenstein leaves to study under Bertrand Russell at Cambridge, he begins to investigate language and apply the strictures and constructs of language to philosophical study. The subject of Wittgenstein's homosexuality is depicted when, after World War I, he falls in love with a poor philosophy student, Johnny (Kevin Collins). Also portrayed is Wittgenstein's death at an early age from prostate cancer. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
Another of Derek Jarman's revisionist biographies, Wittgenstein is a fractured portrait of the 20th century philosopher as a misunderstood artist and a tormented gay soul. Intentional anachronisms abound: the characters use modern technologies and conveniences, and they are costumed in everything from ancient Roman garb to ornate period drag. The stylization, however, conveys the philosopher's theories on the nature of language more dynamically and effectively than a more labored adaptation of his life and times might have done. Wittgenstein would be Jarman's last full-fledged film before he lost his sight to AIDS and made the experimental Blue. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide
