Lovesick (1983 film)

Last updated
Lovesick
Lovesick (1983 film).png
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Marshall Brickman
Written byMarshall Brickman
Produced byCharles Okun
Starring
Cinematography Gerry Fisher
Edited byNina Feinberg
Music by Philippe Sarde
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • February 18, 1983 (1983-02-18)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$10.1 million [1]
Box office$10 million

Lovesick is a 1983 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Marshall Brickman. [2] [3] It stars Dudley Moore and Elizabeth McGovern and features Alec Guinness as the ghost of Sigmund Freud. [4]

Contents

Plot

Psychoanalyst Saul Benjamin takes on a patient temporarily as a favor to a colleague friend, Otto Jaffe, who is infatuated with her. After her doctor dies, Chloe Allen comes to see Dr. Benjamin and immediately he is smitten with her, too.

The doctor-patient relationship is violated by Dr. Benjamin's romantic impulses toward Chloe and by his intense jealousy of anyone who comes near her, including Ted Caruso, an arrogant Broadway actor with whom she has become involved. The psychiatrist's wife also is carrying on an affair with Jac Applezweig, an artist.

The ghost of Dr. Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, visits Dr. Benjamin from time to time to dispense warnings and wisdom. Benjamin's work begins to suffer as he abandons patients like Mrs. Mondragon, finding her tedious, and treats the paranoia of another, Marvin Zuckerman, by designing a peculiar handmade hat for him to wear.

A board of inquiry calls in Dr. Benjamin to consider revoking his license. In the end, he admits his feelings to Chloe and concludes that he prefers true love to treating the sick.

Cast

Production

Lovesick was one of two early-1980s films originally intended to star Peter Sellers. Production was to have begun in early 1981, once Sellers had finished shooting Romance of the Pink Panther . Sellers's death in July 1980, before Romance of the Pink Panther had even started production, meant that his roles in both Lovesick and 1984's Unfaithfully Yours went to Dudley Moore.

Reception

Release

Lovesick was released in theatres on February 18, 1983. [2] The film was released on DVD on October 20, 1998, by Warner Home Video. [5]

Critical response

Film critic Vincent Canby wrote in his review, "Mr. Moore and Miss McGovern are such appealing lovers that the movie successfully bypasses all questions of ethics." [2] Book editors Laurence Goldstein and Ira Konigsberg wrote in their book, The Movies: Texts, Receptions, Exposures, "One looks back with nostalgia to a time when psychotherapists are not fools like [...] lovesick fools like Dudley Moore [...] Psychotherapists were certainly portrayed as comic and horrific figures in earlier films, but they were a good deal of respect than in recent years." [6]

Related Research Articles

Psychoanalysis is a theory developed by Sigmund Freud. It describes the human mind as an apparatus that emerged along the path of evolution and consists mainly of three functionally interlocking instances: a set of innate needs, a consciousness to satisfy them by ruling the muscular apparatus, and a memory for storing experiences that arises during this. Furthermore the theory includes insights into the effects of traumatic education and a technique for bringing repressed content back into the consciousness, in particular the diagnostic interpretation of dreams. Overall, psychoanalysis is a method for the treatment of mental disorders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Sellers</span> English actor and comedian (1925–1980)

Peter Sellers was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series The Goon Show. Sellers featured on a number of hit comic songs, and became known to a worldwide audience through his many film roles, among them Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigmund Freud</span> Founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl Jung</span> Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist (1875–1961)

Carl Gustav Jung was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, psychologist and pioneering evolutionary theorist who founded the school of analytical psychology. He was a prolific author, illustrator, and correspondent, and a complex and controversial character, perhaps best known through his "autobiography" Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

Transactional analysis is a psychoanalytic theory and method of therapy wherein social interactions are analyzed to determine the ego state of the communicator as a basis for understanding behavior. In transactional analysis, the communicator is taught to alter the ego state as a way to solve emotional problems. The method deviates from Freudian psychoanalysis, which focuses on increasing awareness of the contents of subconsciously held ideas. Eric Berne developed the concept and paradigm of transactional analysis in the late 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golders Green Crematorium</span> Crematorium in London, England

Golders Green Crematorium and Mausoleum was the first crematorium to be opened in London, and one of the oldest crematoria in Britain. The land for the crematorium was purchased in 1900, costing £6,000, and the crematorium was opened in 1902 by Sir Henry Thompson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritz Perls</span> German-born psychiatrist (1893–1970)

Friedrich Salomon Perls, better known as Fritz Perls, was a German-born psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and psychotherapist. Perls coined the term "Gestalt therapy" to identify the form of psychotherapy that he developed with his wife, Laura Perls, in the 1940s and 1950s. Perls became associated with the Esalen Institute in 1964 and lived there until 1969.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Bernays</span> American public relations pioneer (1891–1995)

Edward Louis Bernays was an American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, and referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations". While credited with advancing the profession of public relations, his techniques have been criticized for manipulating public opinion, often in ways that undermined individual autonomy and democratic values.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Meyer</span> American screenwriter, producer, author, and director

Nicholas Meyer is an American screenwriter, director and author known for his best-selling novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and for directing the films Time After Time, two of the Star Trek feature films, the 1983 television film The Day After, and the 1999 HBO original film Vendetta.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth McGovern</span> American actress (born 1961)

Elizabeth Lee McGovern is an American actress. She has received many awards and nominations, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, three Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Academy Award nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Analytical psychology</span> Jungian theories

Analytical psychology is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" of the psyche. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their seven-year collaboration on psychoanalysis was drawing to an end between 1912 and 1913. The evolution of his science is contained in his monumental opus, the Collected Works, written over sixty years of his lifetime.

<i>S.O.B.</i> (film) 1981 American comedy directed by Blake Edwards

S.O.B. is a 1981 American satirical black comedy film written and directed by Blake Edwards, starring Julie Andrews, Richard Mulligan, Robert Preston, Larry Hagman, Robert Vaughn, Robert Webber, Loretta Swit, Shelley Winters, and William Holden in his final film role. The film was produced by Lorimar and was released by Paramount Pictures on July 1, 1981.

<i>10</i> (1979 film) 1979 film directed by Blake Edwards

10 is a 1979 American romantic comedy film written, produced and directed by Blake Edwards and starring Dudley Moore, Julie Andrews, Robert Webber, and Bo Derek. It was considered a trendsetting film at the time of its release and became one of the year's biggest box-office hits. The film follows a middle-aged man who becomes infatuated with a young woman whom he has never met, leading to a comic chase and an encounter in Mexico.

<i>The Alienist</i> 1994 novel by Caleb Carr

The Alienist is a crime novel by Caleb Carr first published in 1994 and is the first book in the Kreizler series. It takes place in New York City in 1896, and includes appearances by many famous figures of New York society in that era, including Theodore Roosevelt and J. P. Morgan. The story follows Roosevelt, then New York City police commissioner, and Dr. Laszlo Kreizler, as their investigative team attempts to solve gruesome murders through new methods including fingerprinting and psychology. The first murder victim investigated is a 13-year-old immigrant who has had his eyes removed, his genitals removed and stuffed in his mouth, and other injuries. The investigators deal with various interest groups that wish to maintain the status quo regarding the poor immigrant population in New York City. The sequel to the novel is The Angel of Darkness.

<i>Eros and Civilization</i> 1955 book by Herbert Marcuse

Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud is a book by the German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse, in which the author proposes a non-repressive society, attempts a synthesis of the theories of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud, and explores the potential of collective memory to be a source of disobedience and revolt and point the way to an alternative future. Its title alludes to Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents (1930). The 1966 edition has an added "political preface".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Melamed</span> American actor (born 1956)

Fred Melamed is an American actor. After spending most of his early career primarily as a renowned voice over artist, and occasionally playing small roles in films, notably in seven films directed by Woody Allen, he established himself as a character actor, with his role as Sy Ableman in the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man (2009). Other notable film credits have included In a World... (2012), Hail, Caesar! (2016), and Shiva Baby (2020).

Peter J. Loewenberg is an American historian and psychoanalyst, professor of "European cultural, intellectual, German, Austrian and Swiss history, political Psychology, integrating the identities of an historian and political psychologist with the clinical practice of psychoanalysis" at UCLA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne-Lise Stern</span> French psychoanalyst (1921–2013)

Anne-Lise Stern was a French psychoanalyst and Holocaust survivor.

References

  1. "Lovesick". The Numbers . Retrieved March 26, 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Canby, Vincent (February 18, 1983). "Dudley Morre Returns in 'Lovesick'". The New York Times . Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  3. Rieber & Kelly 2013, p. 68.
  4. Gabbard & Gabbard 1999, p. 107.
  5. Lovesick. Warner Home Video . Burbank, California: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group (Warner Bros. Entertainment). October 20, 1998. ASIN   6305133492 . Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  6. Goldstein & Konigsberg 1996, p. 11.

Bibliography