The ethics of the dispute. A filmographic analysis of postmarital litigation

Abstract

As a narrative art and focused on the human condition, cinema recreates (and, at the same time, interrogates) the intricate ways of facing conflict in social life. In this regard, the cinematographic experience can serve as a means of problematizing the ethical implications that derive from a certain style of conversation, discussion and dispute in different areas, including that of the intimate sphere. The heartbreaking drama of postmarital litigation is, in this sense, a revealing theme of the fatal intersection of the private and the public. Oscar Noah Baumbach’s film, Marriage History, exhibits, through the big screen, the complex constitution of a highly expert-cratic alienating equation that ends up colonizing a couple’s decisions about the custody of their child. In this article, I will try to show that the discussions between the couple are permeated by an epistemicidal ethos that traces the legal use of the allegation made by their respective lawyers. Within this framework, arguments impregnated with epistemic vices are raised, with eminently devaluing effects. In light of certain reciprocal positions, the members of the couple (Nicole and Charlie) are encouraged to retell the story of their marriage in ways that legitimize the interests and expectations of the divorce scene. The metaphor of the discussion as a war constrains his explanatory schemes, to the point of turning the former spouse into a staunch enemy. The present filmographic analysis is intended to show the potential of cinema to insightfully pose the philosophical question of disagreement and epistemic autonomy.