Wittgenstein

Derek Jarman’s penultimate film is an imaginative biopic – full of campy theatricality – about Ludwig Wittgenstein, the Viennese philosopher who brought about a revolution in the way language’s boundaries were perceived. The tortured eccentric who preferred detective stories and Carmen Miranda’s musicals over Aristotele, had to suppress his homosexual desire, a recurring theme in Jarman’s work, who repeatedly switches back and forth between the adult and the young philosopher.

The film features daring, impeccable acting from Karl Johnson (as the adult Wittgenstein), Michael Gough (philosopher Bertrand Russell) and Tilda Swinton (Lady Ottoline Morell). Swinton with extravagantly decorated hats, stars as a down-to-earth hedonist who, confronted with one of Wittgenstein’s riddles answers: “How in heaven’s name am I supposed to know?”

Upstanding citizen

The troubled Wittgenstein’s life consists of a series of remarkable decisions: he volunteers for the First World War, subsequently visits the Soviet Union where he intends to work in a factory and become an ‘upstanding citizen’. His attempts to reach ordinary people by teaching logic at a rural school immediately lead to disaster.

Wittgenstein, made as Derek Jarman was dying of AIDS consists of a lively, highly entertaining series of sketches with minimal art direction, yet replete with subtle humour. Winner of the Teddy for Best Feature Film at the Berlin Film Festival.

Introduction

Bo Tarenskeen On Tuesday 14 October 2025, language philosopher, playwright, director and actor Bo Tarenskeen will introduce the film about and the character of Wittgenstein. In 2021, 100 years after the latter’s ‘Tractatus’, Tarenskeen decided to create 11 plays about the life and work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. The comedy ‘Wittgenstein 2. Aan de taal ligt het niet’ was nominated twice for the Theo ‘d Or and will be re-staged from 17 September - 12 October at Theater Bellevue in Amsterdam.