Biopics about philosophers

While most people think of philosophers as boring people who do nothing all day I think there were some philosophers who had great interesting lives and would make great biopics. Here are my suggestions:

Starting with the basics, a movie about the life and death, specially the death, of Socrates. A compilation of many of Plato's dialogues and other narratives of other authors about Socrates' life. His sexual/love relationship with Alcibiades, the mocking Aristophanes made of him with his play The Clouds and ending with the trial of Socrates, with material taken both from Plato's and Xenophon's Apologies and Plato's Crito. It would be a good way to introduce people to philosophy.

The next suggestion is one who actually wrote his own biography, Augustine of Hippo. This early Christian philosopher and theologian had a very curious life, from a believer in the old religious system of Manichaeism to become the greatest Christian theologian of all times. The biopic would be largely based on his autobiography Confessions (and maybe even entitled like that), considered the first autobiography of history. I mean, if there is enough public for religious films like The Passion of the Christ there should be for Confessions.

There is another great philosopher who also wrote an autobiography also called Confessions: the Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The man had one hell of a life: run away from house as a teen, had a love relationship with a woman more than 10 years older than him, had many other love affairs and illegitimate children, the man was a philosophing Casanova ! I even think a biopic about Jean-Jacques Rousseau could have a more humorous, picaresque style.

Another philosopher who also deserves a biopic is Friedrich Nietzsche. From his unrequited love to Lou Andreas-Salomé, the break ups with his anti-semitic sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche and the German composer Richard Wagner and his final days dying of syphilis a biopic about Nietzsche, largely inspired by his autobiography Ecce Homo would be a good way to demystify many of the common prejudices people have against the great German philosopher.

And these are just some suggestions. There are many other philosophers who could originate biopics. Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, Bertrand Russell...For example, there is even already a biopic about the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108583/