Wittgenstein

Working on a shoestring budget, Jarman evokes the inner world of the Viennese-born philosophical giant, turning the financial and technical constraints—the project was originally conceived as part of a television series on great thinkers—to his advantage. The result might even have delighted the eponymous Ludwig, a die-hard cinephile whose daily life was marked by spartan asceticism. Jarman stages episodes from various periods of Wittgenstein’s life in Austria and England in an equally spartan manner: economical yet extravagant on a sparse stage with simple costumes, props, and furniture. An experimental approach that Jarman’s muse and companion Tilda Swinton (appreciatively) compared to a “school play.” Swinton herself plays Lady Ottoline Morrell, an unconventional grande dame; horror icon Michael Gough plays a sprightly Bertrand Russell; and Karl Johnson’s portrayal of the older Wittgenstein takes us straight into the realm of reincarnation. (N.Y.)