This is a modern-style play that introduces the life and thoughts of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), who was born in Vienna and studied in Cambridge. His main interest is to study the nature and limits of language. The film uses the simplest black background, with all the investment in costumes, actors and lighting, and the composition is like a dark Enlightenment painting. Wittgenstein appeared as a little boy whose boyhood was depressing and his family wore Roman robes on the screen. A series of small scenes describe his life as a child, through World War I, and eventually as a professor in Cambridge working with Bertrand Russell and John Maynard Keynes. Director Derek Jarman uses theatrical sketches and imaginative tricks, such as the appearance of Martian dwarfs, to show Wittgenstein's aristocratic behavior, Jewish background, and homosexual tendencies.
6.9
