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AUDIOVISUAL REVIEW |
President/Educator & Consultant, AgeEdPO Box 528Mount Pleasant, MI 48804-0528E-mail: cjg{at}sensible-net.com
Iris. Video/DVD/2001/91 min. Based on John Bayley's book Elegy for Iris (1998). Directed by Richard Eyre. Distributed by Miramax Films.
Iris Murdoch and John Bayley met in 1955 and wed in 1956 in Oxford, England. John was a fellow in English at the New College; Iris was a fellow in philosophy at St. Anne's College. They were an odd pairing—gangly, shy, clumsy, and sexually naïve John and beautiful, sensual, sexually experienced, and worldly Iris. Iris Murdoch became one of the great 20th-century English novelists. She wrote 26 novels; and some of the central themes in her writings are the tensions between free will and circumstance, the search for love set against the difficulty of knowing ourselves, and the human search for the absolute in a world dominated by randomness and absurdity. In the feature-length film Iris, viewers are treated to "pages" out of Iris and John's relationship from their first meeting through the moments following Iris's death in 1999. Scenes from across their relationship are interspersed in the midst of their final "chapter" together as Iris slips into her "secret life" and into Alzheimer's disease. The film Iris is based on Bayley's book Elegy for Iris: A Memoir (1998), one of the three books in which he documents his life with Iris, their battle with her Alzheimer's disease, and his struggles as a widower following her death. The other two books are Iris and Her Friends (1999) and Widower's House (2001).
Words are vital to Iris: "If one doesn't have words, how does one think?" Her difficulty remembering words marks the beginning and progression of her Alzheimer's in real life and in this film. The first inkling that anything is wrong comes as she and John are in a pub. She repeats a sentence, then immediately recognizes she has done so. Soon after that incident, during a writing session interrupted by a spat between a cat and a fox outside her window, Iris appears to struggle with the word "puzzled." She seems not to understand its meaning or use, but writes it multiple times on a page of manuscript. She says, "We worry about being mad, don't we? How would we know ... those of us who live in our minds? Other people would tell us, wouldn't they, John?" In this same scene, Iris and John resume their individual writing, but Iris struggles to find the words she wants—scratching through word after word with her pen. In this scene they both seem to recognize something is seriously wrong.
Later, during the taping of a retrospective of her work for a television program, Iris seems distracted, loses her train of thought mid-sentence, leaves the interview, and returns home in a panic without any memory of the interview. During a house call from their doctor, Iris says, "I have a lot of ideas, but they won't come together. Happens all the time!" John denies this problem in response to the doctor's question, "Does it happen all the time?" In later scenes, this denial continues for John as he encourages Iris to keep on talking and keep working. She seems to agree, until the scene in which she is being tested for word and picture memory. Failing to accurately read words and identify objects, Iris says, "I feel as if I'm sailing into darkness." John tries to halt the testing and says to Iris and the doctor in charge, "We will win," but the doctor counters with a reference to the inexorable power of the disease: "It will win." Iris appreciates finally hearing the truth, and tells the doctor, "That's very kind of you."
As the disease progresses, there are scenes in which John's frustration tumbles out in a mix of angry words and simultaneous apologies to Iris—comments that indicate he understands she is not intentionally behaving in irritating ways. To calm Iris, he reads to her from a book that she recognizes as her own: "I wrote," she says. John, with love and joy on his face at this moment of lucidity, responds, "Yes, my darling clever cat. You wrote books. You wrote novels ... wonderful novels."
When Iris wanders away from home, a policewoman called by John is startled by the disarray of the home; John's trials at caregiving have left the place a shambles. When an old friend brings Iris back the next day, John's response is ecstatic at seeing Iris. He moans with delight—but even John fails to recognize the old friend—who was a witness at their wedding. Then in bed the next morning, John lashes out at Iris with questions about what lover she is with now and accusations about her "secret life." He expresses his conjoined hatred and love for her. He curses "Mr. Alzheimer." His grief is assuaged only when Iris reaches out to comfort him and when—in a flashback—John remembers the time Iris shared the name of every one of her lovers with him and then told John, "You know more about me than anyone else in the world. You are my world."
This is an especially rich film because of its use, intentional or not, of a life course perspective that weaves scenes from across Iris and John's 44-year relationship into the story of their final journey together through their experience with her Alzheimer's disease. Life-stage and chronological approaches that start at the beginning and work their way through the life story from beginning to end would not have made it possible to see the present immediately played against the past. Without this perspective, the viewer would not be able to understand as clearly the interdependence in this marriage, the compromises John and Iris each made in their marriage, John's outbursts during frustrating incidents with Alzheimer's, and the intellectual bond that helped them through the personal crises.
This film allows the viewer to get an insider's view into the intimate details of a long-term marriage, as well as what it is like to be the person afflicted with Alzheimer's and the person who is the primary caregiver. Characters and situations are portrayed accurately. It is easy to see why the Alzheimer's Association endorsed this film—on the DVD version—in an opening segment in which David Hyde Pierce (Niles from the television show Frasier) provides an overview of risk factors, symptoms, current incidence and projected estimates, and the type of education and support available to families through the association. It is also easy to see why Judi Dench (older Iris), Kate Winslett (younger Iris), and Jim Broadbent (older John) received acclaim for their work in this film. Their acting plus the film techniques enhance the viewer's ability to feel a part of these stories rather than feeling like a voyeur. The film is sparsely filmed—concise, accurate, and to the point without going to excess. The narration engages and respects the viewer's ability to move easily between the past and present without needing excessive transitions. Visual scenes without dialogue (as in the swimming scenes) and symbolism (especially in the scene near the end when Iris lets go of the novel she cannot write by releasing blank pages from their stone paperweights) challenge the intellect of the viewer with appropriate abstractness.
This film should be mandatory viewing for all students in gerontology and geriatric studies programs, as well as for professionals/paraprofessionals working in the field of aging. It would be a wonderful film to use in training direct service providers who work with Alzheimer's-afflicted individuals and their families. Iris is an excellent film to trigger discussion in educational programs and support groups for family caregivers and family members dealing with Alzheimer's disease. Professionals and students of clinical psychology, social work, family studies, and marriage and family therapy/counseling should find this to be a rich case study for analysis and application to similar cases. The film, along with John Bayley's books, would seem to be wonderful learning tools in courses in literature, literary criticism, and film. Professional practice with and/or on behalf of elders and their families who are coping with Alzheimer's disease, related dementias and other chronic health problems would be more sensitive and appropriate if "case studies" such as portrayed in Iris were used in more non-clinical educational and training programs.
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