Philosophers sound off in ‘Examined Life’
Published 4:43 pm Thursday, April 23, 2009
There are worse ideas for a documentary than interviewing a collection of the world’s most articulate (well, talkiest) philosophers, and laying the interviews end to end.
This is “Examined Life,” an agreeably casual discourse with nine interesting people. I’m not sure how filmmaker Astra Taylor did it, but the film is about 80 percent free of academic jargon, so even people who don’t speak that rarefied language can dig the movie.
Taylor’s most inspired idea was to have each person walking as he or she talks. This puts the speaker in the world, usually around people, their ideas unrolling with the rhythm of a pleasant stroll.
The only exception is the first philosopher, the celebrated Cornel West, who sits in the back seat of a car traveling through Manhattan. It probably wouldn’t matter; West seems so fond of the sound of his own voice that he’d probably go on with the same volubility if he were alone in the desert.
And why not? He’s a classic classroom spellbinder, with a delightful cascade of cultural references and a winningly open approach to embracing life’s imperfections. (No reference to his role in the “Matrix” sequels.)
The others present a mix of clear ideas, challenging thinking, and a certain amount of self-love. A few stabs at describing the “meaning of it all” leave the sense that if we’d just stop inventing an objective meaning to life, or searching so diligently for it, we’d probably all be a lot happier.
When you hear Kwame Anthony Appiah (on the notion of the “cosmopolitan” personality) or the irrepressible Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek (who wanders through a garbage dump), you can’t help but think that it sure looks like fun to be a philosopher. (Taylor made a previous film entirely about the showboating Zizek.)
Avital Ronell, walking through Central Park without quite seeming to notice it, comes across as rather smug (How is it that philosophers who explore the world of uncertainty can become so certain about their views?). On the ultra-sincere end is Peter Singer, who mostly talks about human and animal suffering, and steers clear of his more controversial notions of euthanasia and the treatment of animals.
In some ways, the most intriguing encounter is the only two-person section: a walk through the streets of San Francisco with Judith Butler, who writes often on gender identity, and Sunaura Taylor, a disabilities activist who uses a special wheelchair (and who is, although she is not identified as such, the filmmaker’s sister).
Not only are their comments interesting, but there’s something refreshing about watching people who are not only talking but interacting with somebody else.
Maybe that’s why “Examined Life,” enjoyable as it is, misses the strong feed-your-head level of “My Dinner with Andre,” a somewhat similar brain exercise. It’s always better when someone talks back.
