Movies about intellectual history
July 1, 2024 11:37 AM Subscribe
Are there some smart, talky movies (not documentaries) about intellectual movements of the 20th century? I've search Google high and low and get nothing.
I realize not a ton of people want to watch 2 hours of talking, but surely there's something out there? Even biopics about specific members of the intelligentsia would be okay.
It started with wanting a film about the Algonquin Round Table (Dorothy Parker etc.). The 1920s in general is an exciting time of change and I'd love a modern take on that era. Searching for the 1920s just gets me a lot of gangster movies and some Fred Astaire.
It started with wanting a film about the Algonquin Round Table (Dorothy Parker etc.). The 1920s in general is an exciting time of change and I'd love a modern take on that era. Searching for the 1920s just gets me a lot of gangster movies and some Fred Astaire.
The Algonquin Round Table was an obvious (and criticized) intellectual touchstone of the 1920s, and resulted in the documentary The Ten-Year Lunch (1987), winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature that year, and the dramatic film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), starring Jennifer Jason Leigh in the title role.
posted by intermod at 12:06 PM on July 1 [8 favorites]
posted by intermod at 12:06 PM on July 1 [8 favorites]
Cradle Will Rock (1999) veers into that territory quite a bit.
posted by Silvery Fish at 12:13 PM on July 1 [3 favorites]
posted by Silvery Fish at 12:13 PM on July 1 [3 favorites]
I haven't seen it, but Hannah Arendt (2012) comes to mind under the heading of 'biopics about specific members of the intelligentsia.' The synopsis at Wikipedia suggests it touches very briefly on her role in 20th C. intellectual history outside of the main event it covers.
More tangentially, way less seriously, yet intellectually significant in its own way, 24 Hour Party People (2002) is a smart and extremely talky movie about the punk/post-punk periphery of Dada, Lettrism, and Situationism, although IIRC it has at most one nod in that direction.
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:14 PM on July 1 [3 favorites]
More tangentially, way less seriously, yet intellectually significant in its own way, 24 Hour Party People (2002) is a smart and extremely talky movie about the punk/post-punk periphery of Dada, Lettrism, and Situationism, although IIRC it has at most one nod in that direction.
posted by Wobbuffet at 12:14 PM on July 1 [3 favorites]
Just before the 1920s: Reds (1981) Warren Beatty with Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Jerzy Kosiński(!)
In the 1920s: The Moderns, an Alan Rudolph film from 1988. Also, Midnight In Paris
Heart Beat (1980) On The Road with Kerouac, Ginsberg and Cassady
posted by Rash at 1:09 PM on July 1 [2 favorites]
In the 1920s: The Moderns, an Alan Rudolph film from 1988. Also, Midnight In Paris
Heart Beat (1980) On The Road with Kerouac, Ginsberg and Cassady
posted by Rash at 1:09 PM on July 1 [2 favorites]
Another sort of documentary that might still appeal: Examined Life.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 1:38 PM on July 1
posted by Winnie the Proust at 1:38 PM on July 1
It's a three-parter, but Life in Squares, about the Bloomsbury Group.
A Dangerous Method, about psychoanalysis (I really disliked it, but it does fit your question).
And Suffragette, if this qualifies for you as an intellectual movement.
posted by paduasoy at 2:00 PM on July 1 [1 favorite]
A Dangerous Method, about psychoanalysis (I really disliked it, but it does fit your question).
And Suffragette, if this qualifies for you as an intellectual movement.
posted by paduasoy at 2:00 PM on July 1 [1 favorite]
Howl, the 2010 film about Allen Ginsburg's reading of his poem in 1955 and the obscenity trial that followed.
I was reminded of this by Rash's mention of Heart Beat above. There is also 2012 movie of Kerouac's On the Road. And also a 2013 movie Kill Your Darlings about the Lucian Carr murder case depicting several of the Beats, including Daniel Radcliffe (of 'Harry Potter' fame) as the young Allen Ginsberg.
posted by JonJacky at 2:29 PM on July 1 [1 favorite]
I was reminded of this by Rash's mention of Heart Beat above. There is also 2012 movie of Kerouac's On the Road. And also a 2013 movie Kill Your Darlings about the Lucian Carr murder case depicting several of the Beats, including Daniel Radcliffe (of 'Harry Potter' fame) as the young Allen Ginsberg.
posted by JonJacky at 2:29 PM on July 1 [1 favorite]
I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for - - if you would even consider the Beats an intellectual movement --- but for completeness there is also Naked Lunch, the 1991 David Cronenberg film of the Burroughs novel, which is also about the writing of the novel.
Of all these movies about the Beats, I recall Howl has the most about the intellectual content and controversy -- the obscenity trial is dramatized in the movie. The others are more dramas about the personal lives of the writers and their circle.
posted by JonJacky at 2:51 PM on July 1 [4 favorites]
Of all these movies about the Beats, I recall Howl has the most about the intellectual content and controversy -- the obscenity trial is dramatized in the movie. The others are more dramas about the personal lives of the writers and their circle.
posted by JonJacky at 2:51 PM on July 1 [4 favorites]
If you consider nuclear physics an intellectual movement, the recent movie Oppenheimer would qualify - the physicist Lawrence (inventor of the cyclotron) is a major character and many other famous physicists appear briefly. An earlier movie about the making of the atomic bomb, also featuring Oppenheimer, was Fat Man and Little Boy (1989).
Copenhagen is a BBC TV movie about a meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg, based on the play by Michael Frayn.
posted by JonJacky at 3:35 PM on July 1
Copenhagen is a BBC TV movie about a meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg, based on the play by Michael Frayn.
posted by JonJacky at 3:35 PM on July 1
You might also want to watch Mrs. America which chronicles Phyllis Schlafley's, sadly, successful attempt to quash the Equal Rights Amendment. Lots of 2nd wave feminist history and discourse embedded throughout.
posted by brookeb at 4:19 PM on July 1 [2 favorites]
posted by brookeb at 4:19 PM on July 1 [2 favorites]
Black Power Mixtape is another critical film. that's more of a documentary though, so:
Malcolm X
Judas & the Black Messiah
posted by HearHere at 4:58 PM on July 1 [2 favorites]
Malcolm X
Judas & the Black Messiah
posted by HearHere at 4:58 PM on July 1 [2 favorites]
This might seem like a left-field answer to your question, but you might consider Adaptation, Spike Jonze's film of (the screenwriter) Charlie Kaufman's screenplay about (the character) Charlie Kaufman's effort to turn Susan Orlean's (all too real) book The Orchid Thief into a film. Though it's not about an intellectual movement, it is an exploration of the travails of creativity and the role of the writer in filmmaking. And no, despite casting Nick Cage as both Charlie Kaufman and his fictional brother, and many uncomfortably funny moments for anyone who's tried creative writing, the film, as meta as it is, is not a joke.
posted by lhauser at 5:20 PM on July 1
posted by lhauser at 5:20 PM on July 1
It’s specifically about Pascal’s Wager, not an intellectual movement per se, but Eric Rohmer’s My Night at Maud’s immediately came to mind. Probably his whole Six Moral Tales series would interest you.
posted by nightrecordings at 10:03 PM on July 1
posted by nightrecordings at 10:03 PM on July 1
There are several versions of Sartre's NoExit on YouTube. It's s not about political movements, but it is intellectual and it is talky.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:38 AM on July 2
posted by SemiSalt at 4:38 AM on July 2
Magic Trip about Ken Kesey, Neal Cassady, and the Merry Pranksters (with the standard "is this intellectual?" disclaimer, not to go full Truman Capote)
posted by credulous at 9:12 AM on July 2
posted by credulous at 9:12 AM on July 2
One Night in Miami might fit the bill. And maybe Metropolitan or other Whit Stillman titles.
posted by PaulaSchultz at 2:21 PM on July 2
posted by PaulaSchultz at 2:21 PM on July 2
Response by poster: I knew you folks would know! I can't wait to dig into this treasure trove. Thank you all so very much!
posted by Frenchy67 at 2:06 PM on July 3
posted by Frenchy67 at 2:06 PM on July 3
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posted by brookeb at 11:45 AM on July 1 [5 favorites]