Philosophy on film

Does Woody Allen’s Irrational Man succeed in bringing big ideas to the big screen? Benjamin Poore gives his verdict

Published on
September 10, 2015
Last updated
September 10, 2015
Joaquin Phoenix, Irrational Man, Woody Allen, Sony Pictures, 2015
Source: Gravier/Sony Pictures/Kobal
Joaquin Phoenix in Irrational Man, directed by Woody Allen

POSTSCRIPT:

Print headline: Entertaining thoughts

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Reader's comments (1)

No disrespect to Benjamin Poore, but there are many more films about or featuring philosophers than he mentions in his review article. Most obviously, perhaps, there have been four English-language films about the eclectic Slovenian thinker Slavoj Žižek, who himself uses examples from films to illustrate his points: Ben Wright's The Power of the Virtual (2004); Astra Taylor's Žižek! (2005); and Sophie Fiennes's The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006) and The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012). Four films have also been made about Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil (1977), directed by Liliana Cavani, better known for The Night Porter; Brazilian director Júlio Bressani's Days in Turin (2001); Pinchas Perry's When Nietzsche Wept (2007) based on Irvin D. Yalom's novel of the same name, which also features Joseph Breuer and Sigmund Freud; and Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky's prize-winning The Turin Horse (2011), though this is more about Nietzsche's final breakdown than his philosophy. Žižek also appears in two documentaries featuring a range of contemporary philosophers: Astra Taylor's Examined Life (2008) and Jason Barker's Marx Reloaded (2011). Notable examples of other relevant films would include Derek Jarman's Wittgenstein (1993), Richard Eyre's Iris (2001), on Iris Murdoch, and Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman's Derrida (2002). Plenty of food for thought there.

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