"A Brave New World" is unarguably a literary classic. It's studied in schools, hailed as visionary, and still holds up as a good read to this day. Its author, Aldous Huxley, was a noted public intellectual, critic of mainstream culture, and a man who eventually went on to experiment with psychedelic drugs. Huxley on Huxley is a more personal look at the man through the lens of his second wife, Laura Huxley. The documentary combines interviews with her with archival footage and conversations with many of the couple's friends and family to paint a portrait of his life both at home and as an intellectual in his later years. Fans of his work or those with a particular interest in his personal life will find this fascinating.
The documentary begins on an old black and white photo of the couple, and goes on from there to give us some background on who exactly Laura is. Her maiden name was Archera, and she first came to the U.S. as a world class violinist. She eventually tired of music, though, and went on to become a documentary film producer and eventually an unlicensed therapist. This is how she came to meet Aldous and his first wife Maria, whom she became good friends with.
Maria died of breast cancer in 1955, and shortly after that Aldous married Laura. Laura describes the decision to get married as a logical one: They loved each other, they should be together. It's interesting to see the way these two very intelligent people applied logic and even-handedness to their personal lives just the way they did to the world of ideas.
The documentary covers not only their relationship, but how they both interacted with friends and family. Basic talking-head interviews are mixed in with Laura walking the filmmakers through the home she shared with Aldous. Laura shuttles back and forth between revealing what life with Aldous was like and what her life has been since he died (in 1963). At times, the narrative's wandering nature can frustrate. Often when Laura begins talking about a specific time (how they got together, when she almost left him, etc.), we get a cursory exploration before moving on to a completely different topic.
One gets the feeling that the filmmakers were committed to following the natural flow of how the film makinging process played out. While this certainly can be frustrating, it does give the film a wandering, structureless pace that evokes the feel of a good conversation had over dinner. Rather than being a methodical biographical portrait of Laura or Aldous, the film lets the audience get to know the couple casually, imperfectly, almost naturally. Much like might happen in real life. This definitely gives the doc a more intimate feel than similar works.
We learn about Aldous's efforts to repair his own vision using the controversial “Bates method,” his experimentation with drugs like Mescalin and LSD, and his extreme interest in nutrition and health. Huxley worked with Timothy Leary to investigate the limits of consciousness and was heavily involved in the psychedelic movement before its widespread popularity in the early '60's. Laura and others' explanation of the conflict between Leary and Huxley is illuminating: even in embracing the radical movement, Huxley advocated reason and caution in contrast to Leary's freewheeling attitude. Huxley went beyond the drug movement to talk about and explore achieving similar results without the use of drugs.
Towards the end, the film covers both Laura's intellectual and family life after Aldous's death. She went on to publish many nonfiction books as well as a biography of Aldous. She also managed Aldous's estate, and started a non-profit organization to help promote some of the ideas they had together to make the world a better place. She became the legal guardian of a close friend's granddaughter, and essentially raised her. The interviews and footage of Laura interacting with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren is so intimate it almost makes one uncomfortable.
Overall, this is a wandering hour-long exploration of some extremely interesting people. If you have no interest in the Huxleys, though, it might be a bit tough to get through.
DVD Bonus Features
There are over 46 minutes of additional interview footage from various people featured in the film. There's also a photo montage with hundreds of pictures.
"Huxley on Huxley" is on sale July 27, 2010 and is not rated. Documentary. Directed by Mary Ann Braubach. Written by N/A. Starring Laura Huxley, Nick Nolte, Peter Coyote.
