I think this film has to be placed in it's time. In the early 1960s, Freud was still champion of American Psychiatry, but he was beginning to get rocked by sharp left jabs. When was the right cross going to come to knock him down? Clearly soon. Thus, he was no longer seen as the visionary man of science who illuminated the human condition-which this film says explicitly it is about. You really couldn't make the standard Freudian biography anymore. A strength of this film is it did not actually do so despite its claims to the contrary. It tells a fantastical tale of a strange guy. Just right!
Freud's reputation has morphed into this current image: A gifted fiction writer who created weird "illnesses" which no one ever quite saw in read life. He described the patient's fantastic back stories (dwelling in their subconscious), and his magical treatments which always worked. A lot of "theory" (ever changing, unscientific and contradictory yadda yadda) was also tossed around over the years.
Cift staggers around as if his pacemaker had just gone off and given him an unexpected jolt. Huston said he was frequently drunk or stoned. He was perfect for the part: a dazed confused guy having fantasies. Exactly what this movie was about.
Freud's reputation has morphed into this current image: A gifted fiction writer who created weird "illnesses" which no one ever quite saw in read life. He described the patient's fantastic back stories (dwelling in their subconscious), and his magical treatments which always worked. A lot of "theory" (ever changing, unscientific and contradictory yadda yadda) was also tossed around over the years.
Cift staggers around as if his pacemaker had just gone off and given him an unexpected jolt. Huston said he was frequently drunk or stoned. He was perfect for the part: a dazed confused guy having fantasies. Exactly what this movie was about.