Iris is a 2001 film that tells the story of Irish novelist Iris Murdoch and her relationship with John Bayley. The film contrasts the start of their relationship, when Murdoch (played by Kate Winslet) was an outgoing, dominant individual as compared to her timid and scholarly partner Bayley (played by Hugh Bonneville), and their later life, when Murdoch (now played by Dame Judi Dench) was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and tended to by a frustrated Bayley (played by Jim Broadbent) in their North Oxford home in Charlbury Road.
The film, which was directed by Richard Eyre, is based on Bayley's memoir Elegy for Iris. The beach scenes were filmed at Southwold in Suffolk, a favourite haunt of Ms Murdoch.
Broadbent received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role. Dench and Winslet were both nominated, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.
Plot
When the young Iris Murdoch meets fellow student John Bayley at the University of Oxford, he is a naive virgin easily flummoxed by her libertine spirit, arch personality, and obvious artistic talent. Decades later, little has changed and the couple keeps house, with John doting on his more famous wife. When Iris begins experiencing forgetfulness and dementia, however, the ever-doltish but devoted John struggles with hopelessness and frustration to become her caretaker, as his wife's mind deteriorates from the ravages of Alzheimer's disease.
Cast
External links
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