WITTGENSTEIN/Austin Film Society

The final film in this Essential Cinema Series had me anticipating a film that would be so obscure and complex that I was prepared to be the dutiful wife who accompanies Abe, a lover of philosophers, to sit next to him and doze.  SURRPRISE!!!!  I loved this film written and directed by Derek Jarman and shot in 10 days in London.  The narrator is this adorable articulate kid with imperfect teeth and some funny observations of Wittgenstein's family.  While I would never attempt to understand Wittgenstein's works I thoroughly related to his life of conflicts (and they were numerous).  While born to a "filthy rich" family he always struggled with issues of class, social status, and the intelligentsia of academia.  His conflicts were related to his sexuality, interpersonal relations (he was a horribly abusive teacher of school age children) religion, and he appeared to not have a comfortable day in his life.  All of this was beautifully shot in a film with the very talented Tilda Swinton, Michael Gough and Karl Johnson.  Chale's copious notes were helpful as always and I quote him when he writes "Perhaps he required repression to think straight."  For some reason that made such sense to me.  Wittgenstein's internal struggles had him groping and groping and moving and changing constantly.  It does not seem he found peace.  Once again AFS has brought me a story of someone whom I would have never encountered.  What could be better than that?