Table Of ContentContemporary Cinema and the Philosophy
of Iris Murdoch
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For Jean Bolton and Richard Menzies
In loving memory of Kat Lindner
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Contemporary Cinema and the
Philosophy of Iris Murdoch
Lucy Bolton
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Contents
List of Figures vi
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Frontispiece: Iris Murdoch pays loving attention to art x
1 Introduction 1
2 Film as Art, and Cinema as a Hall of Reflection 21
3 Film as a Moral Fable 51
4 Film and the Existential Hero(ine) 75
5 Film, Love and Goodness 104
6 Film, Comedy and Tragedy 130
7 Film and Women’s Stories 167
8 Metaphysics as a Guide to Movies 203
Bibliography 223
Filmography 229
Index 231
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Figures
1.1 The face of Lee Miller, in The Blood of a Poet/Le sang d’un poète 15
1.2 Iris Murdoch’s thoughts on Rin Tin Tin on the reverse of a postcard 16
2.1 Anna’s complex emotions on display, in Birth 32
2.2 Jackie Kennedy sees the crowds lining the streets, in Jackie 36
2.3 Footage of Diane Polley from Stories We Tell 42
2.4 The alien looks at her own ‘human’ face, in Under the Skin 48
3.1 Lisa looks at the driver and says ‘green’, in Margaret 55
3.2 Jasmine breaks down after Dwight’s call, in Blue Jasmine 65
3.3 Becky knows there’s nothing she can do, in Compliance 70
4.1 Maria Enders realises Val has left, in Clouds of Sils Maria 88
4.2 Dr Cemal looks us straight in the eye, in Once Upon a Time in Anatolia 93
4.3 Eliza and Romeo have a frank conversation, in Graduation 100
5.1 Susanne helps Nejat recall his father’s love, in The Edge of Heaven 119
5.2 Juliette and Léa learn to live together, in I’ve Loved You So Long/
Il y a longtemps que je t’aime 123
5.3 Eva perseveres with realism and love, in We Need to Talk about Kevin 126
6.1 Khrushchev and Malenkov argue over who invited the bishops,
in The Death of Stalin 139
6.2 Michèle offers a cognac, in Elle 150
6.3 Lee Chandler dreams of his children, in Manchester by the Sea 160
7.1 The rancher lovingly looks at Elizabeth, in Certain Women 182
7.2 The girl who rang, in The Unknown Girl/La fille inconnue 189
7.3 Dr Jenny Davin’s steady attention yields results, in The Unknown Girl/
La fille inconnue 194
7.4 Marieme realises she cannot go to high school, in Girlhood 198
8.1 Iris Murdoch refers to film in an annotation on a page of her copy of
Gilbert Ryle’s The Life of the Mind 211
8.2 Mary Magdalene as a spiritual leader, in Mary Magdalene 214
8.3 Eve encourages Adam to dance, in Only Lovers Left Alive 221
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Acknowledgements
Thank you to Gillian Leslie from EUP for her enthusiasm for this book right
from my first mention of it, and to her colleagues Richard Strachan, Emma
Rees and Rebecca Mackenzie for their help over the last couple of years. Thank
you to all the readers of this book along the way, including the anonymous
reviewers and those who have given me invaluable feedback on specific chap-
ters and the whole thing: Jean Bolton, Miles Leeson, Richard Menzies, Anat
Pick, Hollie Price, Lindsey Smith, Catherine Wheatley and Emma Wilson.
Many thanks to colleagues at Queen Mary University of London for facilitat-
ing the sabbatical I needed to write the book: David Adger, Janet Harbord, Sue
Harris and Shirley Jordan.
Thanks to those who have invited me to speak about Iris Murdoch and film
over the past three or four years and who have given me the opportunity to
receive so many comments and helpful suggestions on this as work in progress.
In particular, Robert Sinnerbrink for the Cinematic Ethics event at Macquarie
University (2015); Miles Leeson at the University of Chichester (2017); Lisa
Downing and Kate Ince at the University of Birmingham (2014); David Sorfa
at the University of Edinburgh (2015). And very special thanks to Fiona Smith
at the National Portrait Gallery, and Aga Baranowska and David Edgar at the
British Film Institute, who have so generously allowed me to pedal my film
philosophical work to the public.
My most sincere thanks go to my friends and colleagues at Film-Philosophy,
who have always supported my work, given me encouragement and friendship,
and infinite, good humoured, intellectual companionship. Thanks to William
Brown, Catherine Constable, John Ó Maoilearca (especially for stories about
Iris Murdoch), David Martin-Jones, Richard Rushton, Robert Sinnerbrink,
David Sorfa and Catherine Wheatley in particular.
Thank you to my friends and colleagues at Queen Mary University of
London, especially in the Centre for Film and Ethics. Particular thanks to my
undergraduate and postgraduate film philosophy students over the past ten
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viii CONTEMPORARY CINEMA AND THE PHILOSOPHY OF IRIS MURDOCH
years, and to my PhD students Simon Dickson and Alice Pember, whose film
philosophical discussions have enriched my work no end.
I am grateful beyond measure to my Murdochian fellow travellers Miles
Leeson, Pamela Osborne, Anne Rowe and Frances White. Thank you for
welcoming me to your community of scholarship, sharing your knowledge so
generously, and inviting me to be part of the Iris Murdoch Review. You have
supported me far beyond my expectations and I am truly in your debt.
For connections, ideas and suggestions that have added to this project in
many ways, thanks to Laura Adams, Lucy Fawcett, Lucas Hare, Ian Killick,
Carly McLaughlin, Lucy H. Oulton, Anat Pick and Sercan Şenozan.
Special love and thanks to my goddaughters Jess Wilson, Charlotte Hatha-
way and Asha Stobbart, and to my support system: Laura Adams, Tanya
Aplin, Bela Kapur, Julie Lobalzo Wright, Natalie Marcus and Ludo, Caraline
Menzies, Lindsey Smith, Megan Smith and The Wilsons. That support sys-
tem includes Laverne, Babs and the team at The Currant, Wanstead – thanks
to you all.
I thank my intellectual spirit animals, Lisa Downing, Anat Pick, Libby
Saxton, Lindsey Smith and Catherine Wheatley, with gratitude and humility.
And all my love, forever, to Jean Bolton and Richard Menzies. I could not have
written this book without you.
Part of my analysis of Blue Jasmine in Chapter 3 was published in my essay,
‘Attention to the details of film and form: Blue Jasmine as Murdochian Moral
Vision’ (2017a). Part of the work on Margaret in Chapter 3 appeared in my
article, ‘Murdoch and Margaret: Learning a Moral Life’ (2017b). Some of my
analysis of Only Lovers Left Alive features in my review of the film in the Times
Higher Educational Supplement, 20 February 2014.
Finally, I want to thank Fatih Akin for granting me permission to use the
image of Lotte from The Edge of Heaven on the cover. Her smiling face in this
scene means a great deal to me and substantially contributes to the meaning of
this book.
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Abbreviations
These are abbreviations for works written by Iris Murdoch. Where possible,
essay references are given to the reprints of Murdoch’s philosophical works in
the collection, Existentialists and Mystics (E&M; Conradi 1997).
A&E ‘Art and Eros’ [1980], E&M 464–95
AD ‘Against Dryness’ [1961], E&M 287–95
E&M ‘Existentialists and Mystics’ [1970], E&M 221–34
EB ‘Existentialist Bite’ [1957], E&M 151–3
EPM ‘The Existential Political Myth’ [1952], E&M 130–45
F&S ‘The Fire and the Sun: Why Plato Banished the Artists’ [1977],
E&M 386–463
HT ‘A House of Theory’ [1958], E&M 171–86
IP ‘The Idea of Perfection’ [1964], E&M 299–336
KV ‘Knowing the Void’ [1956], E&M 157–60
L&P ‘Literature and Philosophy’ [1977], E&M 3–30
M&E ‘Metaphysics and Ethics’ [1957], E&M 59–75
MGM Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals [1992] (2003), London: Vintage
OGG ‘On “God” and “Good”’ [1969], E&M 337–62
OTC ‘On the Cinema’ (1956), British Vogue, 112, August, pp. 98–9
S&G ‘The Sublime and the Good’ [1959], E&M 205–20
SBR ‘The Sublime and the Beautiful Revisited’ [1959], E&M 261–86
SGC ‘The Sovereignty of Good over Other Concepts’ [1967],
E&M 363–85
SRR Sartre: Romantic Rationalist [1953] (1989), London: Penguin
T&L ‘Thinking and Language’ [1951], E&M 33–42
VCM ‘Vision and Choice in Morality’ [1956], E&M 76–98
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