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On May 6, 1856, in the Czech (at that time – Austrian) Freiberg, a boy, Sigismund Shlomo Freud, the future father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, was born in the family of a cloth merchant Jacob Freud. Today, more than a century and a half later, his figure and especially his ideas still cause a lot of controversy. For Freud’s birthday, we have found three tapes for you that will help you look at the great psychoanalyst and his theories from a new angle.
HISTORICAL
A Dangerous Method (dir. David Cronenberg, 2011)
Not flawless from an artistic point of view, this picture of the Jung-Freud-Spielrein triangle, however, allows you to better understand the ideas of two great psychiatrists: Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and his student Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender), understand the nature of their conflict and distance from each other. The story of Sabina Nikolaevna Spielrein (Keira Knightley) is no less interesting: in an hour and a half of screen time, she evolves from a hysteric – in those days a completely legal medical term – into Jung’s mistress, student and comrade-in-arms. By the way, in 1923, ten years after the events described, Spielrein returned to Russia, where she headed the section of child psychology at the First Moscow State Institute and taught the course “Psychoanalysis of Subconscious Thinking”. However, this is a completely different story.
FUNNY
“Kill Freud” (dir. Joaquin Oristrel, 2004)
Barcelona, 1913 Freud’s revolutionary ideas are rapidly spreading across Europe, undermining the foundations, if not of society as a whole, then of a single family. Alma Padro Leon’s husband is a psychiatrist. Inspired by the ideas of Freud, he adopts his method, and at the same time reconsiders his own sexuality and as a result … runs away from his family. Pregnant Alma and her sister’s husband, deeply in love with her, arm themselves with the fugitive’s journal, in which he described the stories of patients, and set off in pursuit. Today, this film might have been released with an 18+ label, but the frank is shown here elegantly and witty – in a way that only the Spaniards seem to be able to do. The Russian translation of the title reveals the main intrigue: in the original, the picture is called “Unconscious”, which is much more accurate – but even this does not really spoil the viewing pleasure.
ANIMATION
“Robbery by Freud” (directed by Milorad Krstic, 2018)
Strictly speaking, there is even less Freud himself in this picture than in the tape of Spanish filmmakers, but it is absolutely impossible not to include this cartoon in the selection. Firstly, because it is fresh: in Russia it was shown for the first time in 2019 at the Hungarian Film Festival (which, alas, does not reach us so often). Secondly, because in its style this avant-garde cocktail of psychoanalysis, art and detective story is great for illustrating Freud’s ideas – in particular, about dreams. Finally, this story about the psychoanalyst Ruben Brandt, who is haunted by the paintings of Van Gogh, Titian and Warhol in his nightmares, is stuffed with references not only to the picturesque, but also to the film classics, which turns viewing into a real adventure.
If this is not enough
- Freud (1984) is a six-part BBC film starring David Suchet (the most famous on-screen Hercule Poirot).
- Freud: A Secret Passion (1962) is a picture of the first years of the great psychoanalyst’s practice. The script was written by Charles Kaufman, Wolfgang Reinhart and – attention – Jean-Paul Sartre.
- Critical Thinking (1976) is a bold attempt to combine the story of Freud and … Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.