Freud's Last Session | |
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Directed by | Matthew Brown |
Screenplay by |
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Based on | Freud's Last Session by Mark St. Germain |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Ben Smithard |
Edited by | Paul Tothill |
Music by | Coby Brown |
Production companies |
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Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 122 minutes [2] |
Countries | |
Language | English |
Box office | $2.7 million [3] [4] |
Freud's Last Session is a 2023 drama film starring Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, and Orla Brady. It is based on the stage play of the same name by Mark St. Germain, which itself is based upon the book The Question of God, by Armand Nicholi. The film was directed by Matthew Brown and written by St. Germain.
Freud's Last Session premiered at the 2023 AFI Fest on October 27, 2023. Sony Pictures Classics released the film in the United States on 22 December 2023 to mixed reviews from critics.
A fictional meeting occurs between C. S. Lewis, nicknamed "Jack", and Sigmund Freud, two days after the start of World War II. They debate on the existence of God, as Freud greatly resents Lewis' recent rejection of his own strain of atheism in favour of Christianity, and many other subjects. The two men discuss issues such as Lewis' post traumatic stress disorder as a World War I combat veteran, J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings, and the nature of Freud's and Lewis's relationships with other people, such as Freud's daughter Anna, who is codependent upon her father. However, she eventually introduces her lesbian lover, Dorothy Burlingham, to him.
At its close, the film records that Freud died by suicide several weeks later due to the intense pain from his oral cancer; Lewis became a famous author of Christian literature, and the children he took in as evacuees during the war served as inspiration for his Narnia series; Anna and Dorothy lived together for decades, and Anna became known as the founder of child psychology. The film notes that Freud met with an unidentified Oxford don in the last days of his life, who could possibly have been Lewis. [5]
WestEnd Films and CAA Media Finance took the project for sales to the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022 with Anthony Hopkins cast, and Matthew Brown on board as director for the St. Germain adaptation. [6] The film is produced by Alan Greisman, Rick Nicita, Meg Thomson and Hannah Leader, with production beginning in the U.K. in late January 2023. [7] However, for financial reasons Freud’s Hampstead house and famous psychoanalyst couch were recreated in Dublin at the Ardmore Studios. [8] A selection of props from the film (particularly the replica couch and garden tent chair) have since May 2023 been housed at the Freud Museum London. Co-produced by Aoife O’Sullivan and Tristan Orpen Lynch of Subotica Operations, the film received UK Global Screen Fund International Co-production funding. [9] [10] An image from principal photography was released in April 2023 with the film entering the final stages of filming in Ireland. [11]
Freud's Last Session premiered at the 2023 AFI Fest on October 27, 2023. [12] That same month, Sony Pictures Classics purchased the distribution rights for North America, Middle East, India, Eastern Europe (excluding Russia), and Turkey. [13] It had a limited release in the United States on 22 December 2023 and in United Kingdom on 14 June 2024. [4]
Freud's Last Session grossed $906,283 in the United States and Canada and $1.8 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $2.7 million. [3] [4]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 44% of 122 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.7/10.The website's consensus reads: "Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode are a tremendously talented pair, but Freud's Last Session is too scattered and thinly written to take full advantage of their efforts." [14] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 48 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [15]
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins is a Welsh actor. One of Britain's most recognisable and prolific actors, he is known for his performances on the screen and stage. Hopkins has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Laurence Olivier Award. He has also received the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2005 and the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2008. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to drama in 1993.
Anna Freud CBE was a British psychoanalyst of Austrian–Jewish descent. She was born in Vienna, the sixth and youngest child of Sigmund Freud and Martha Bernays. She followed the path of her father and contributed to the field of psychoanalysis. Alongside Hermine Hug-Hellmuth and Melanie Klein, she may be considered the founder of psychoanalytic child psychology.
The Century of the Self is a 2002 British television documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis. It focuses on the work of psychoanalysts Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud, and PR consultant Edward Bernays. In episode one, Curtis says, "This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy."
Stage 6 Films, Inc. is an American film production label of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions that acquires and produces feature films that are low budget and that are being released direct-to-disc, on demand, or through streaming services. Some of their films are also being released theatrically. Once a film is finished, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions will decide if the film will be released theatrically or on a different platform.
Dorothy Trimble Tiffany Burlingham was an American child psychoanalyst and educator. A lifelong friend and partner of Anna Freud, Burlingham is known for her joint work with Freud on the analysis of children. During the 1960s and 70s, Burlingham directed the Research Group on the Study of Blind Children at the Hampstead Clinic in London. Her 1979 article on blind infants, "To Be Blind in a Sighted World," published in The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, is considered to be a landmark of empathic scientific observation.
The family of Sigmund Freud, the pioneer of psychoanalysis, lived in Austria and Germany until the 1930s before emigrating to England, Canada, and the United States. Several of Freud's descendants and relatives have become well known in different fields.
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It's Me, Matthew! is a 2008 American short film based on actual events. The semi-autobiographical short film was written, produced, and starred Michael McDerman, who used the stage name Michael Ferreira in this film. It was directed by Neil Stephens. The film running 15 minutes centered on the title character of Matthew, who is confronted with the inner struggle of looking at the past to understand why he's drawn into the personal relationships he's had. His psychoanalyst helps him link the pieces of the puzzle from the present time to the past. The film was screened at North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, Rhode Island International Film Festival, Long Island Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, The Fortress of the Arts Festival of Shorts, Think Short Film Festival, West Hollywood International Film Festival, where it won a Juror Award, and it opened before the gay cinema's gay movie night at Clearview Cinemas, in New York City hosted by Hedda Lettuce.
The Father is a 2020 psychological drama film, directed by Florian Zeller in his directorial debut. He co-wrote the screenplay with fellow playwright Christopher Hampton on the basis of Zeller's 2012 play Le Père. A French–British co-production, the film stars Anthony Hopkins as an octogenarian Welsh man living with dementia. Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams also star.
The Duke is a 2020 British comedy drama film directed by Roger Michell, with a screenplay by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. It is based on the true story of the 1961 theft of the Portrait of the Duke of Wellington by Francisco de Goya. The film stars Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin and Matthew Goode. It was Michell's penultimate film before his death on 22 September 2021.
Freud Corner is the name used for the place within Golders Green Crematorium in North London, where the funerary urns of Sigmund Freud and many other members of the Freud family are deposited.
Peter Blos was a German-American early psychoanalyst, a pioneer of a systematic approach to studying child and adolescent psychological development.
I Carry You with Me is a 2020 Mexican-American romantic drama film directed by Heidi Ewing, from a screenplay by Ewing and Alan Page Arriaga. It stars Armando Espitia, Christian Vázquez, Michelle Rodríguez, Ángeles Cruz, Arcelia Ramírez and Michelle González.
The Human Factor is a 2019 American-Israeli documentary film directed by Dror Moreh. The film follows a thirty-year effort to secure peace in the Middle-East.
The Son is a 2022 drama film directed by Florian Zeller from a screenplay written by himself and Christopher Hampton. It is based on Zeller's 2018 stage play. The film stars Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby, Zen McGrath, Hugh Quarshie, and Anthony Hopkins.
Ilse Hellman Noach was an Austrian-British psychoanalyst and child development expert. She worked with child evacuees from London with psychological issues in the first two years of the Second World War under the employ of the Home Office before working at Anna Freud's Hampstead War Nurseries until the war was over. Hellman trained in psychoanalysis under Dorothy Burlingham and worked at Burlingham's and Freud's Hampsead Child Therapy Course and Clinic from 1945 until her retirement in 1992. She published From War Babies to Grandmothers: Forty-Eight Years in Psychoanalysis in 1990.
Jofi, also known as Yofi, was a Chow Chow dog owned by Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. Known for her significant role in Freud's personal life, Jofi is often cited as an early example of the therapeutic benefits of the human-animal bond. Her companionship with Freud, particularly during his later years, highlights the influence of pets on psychological well-being and has been linked to the early development of animal-assisted therapy. Jofi's presence and behavior also contributed to Freud's understanding of non-verbal communication in therapy settings. American Kennel Club included Jofi in its list of the most important female dogs in history.