FREUD (1962) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: John Huston
Montgomery Clift, Susannah York, Larry Parks,
Susan Kohner, David McCallum, Eric Portman,
Eileen Herlie, Rosalie Crutchley, Fernando Ledoux
Montgomery Clift plays Sigmund Freud, working to unlock the secrets of the subconscious. What do our dreams tell us? Are we sexual beings from infancy? And are symptoms like tremors and paralysis always physiological, or is the mind sometimes involved? The movie's a lot of talk, and unless you've cracked a psych book somewhere along the way, it's easy to get lost. Clift spent the last few years of his own life cracking up, and you can't help wondering how much his troubled emotional state played into his performance. He was also dealing with cataracts at the time, while giving a performance that relies a great deal on the way he uses his eyes. Another thought that has little or nothing to do with the film: When you see Clift in a beard and a top hat, smoking a cigar, a different historical figure comes to mind - U.S. Grant.
