A "Dangerous Method" is finally coming to a cinema near me and I can't wait! David Cronenberg on Freud, Jung, psychoanalysis and the kinky relationship between Jung and his psychotic, beautiful Russian patient-turned-psychoanalyst Sabrina Spielrein, sounds irresistible! A movie on our darkest desires, passions and most basic human instincts. It offers a snapshot of a moment in history when a select group of men set the framework through which the Western world came to think about darker human impulses, such as the role of sexuality in personality development and which lead the development of a seductive relationship between doctor and patient known as transference, a key aspect of psychoanalysis.
This is the third time that the incredible Viggo Mortensen, starring in the role of Sigmund Freud, collaborates with Cronenberg after "Eastern Promises" and "A History of Violence" (I loved both!) and the hottest man of the moment Michael Fassbender is starring as Jung. You probably know him from "Inglorious Basterds" or "X-Men: First Class" but he took my breath away with his haunting, intense performance as an IRA inmate on a hunger strike in Steve McQueens' spectacular "Hunger" (I must admit I have a weakness for skinny hairy men so I actually found him gorgeous in at least the first half of the movie) and he also caught my eye as the seducer of a 15 year old girl in "Fish Tank", a little British gem! I am also really looking forward to his second collaboration with Steve McQueen in the upcoming "Shame"!
This is the third time that the incredible Viggo Mortensen, starring in the role of Sigmund Freud, collaborates with Cronenberg after "Eastern Promises" and "A History of Violence" (I loved both!) and the hottest man of the moment Michael Fassbender is starring as Jung. You probably know him from "Inglorious Basterds" or "X-Men: First Class" but he took my breath away with his haunting, intense performance as an IRA inmate on a hunger strike in Steve McQueens' spectacular "Hunger" (I must admit I have a weakness for skinny hairy men so I actually found him gorgeous in at least the first half of the movie) and he also caught my eye as the seducer of a 15 year old girl in "Fish Tank", a little British gem! I am also really looking forward to his second collaboration with Steve McQueen in the upcoming "Shame"!
A still from "Hunger"
And a sneak preview of "Shame"
As an extra little something the beautiful Keira Knightley and the always surprising Vincent Cassel also star in "A Dangerous Method".
Enjoy some of the quotes that made an impression on me 10 years ago and still do...
"Time is infinite, and force (the basic stuff if the universe) is finite. Given a finite number of potential states of the world and an infinite amount of time that has passed, it follows, Nietzsche claimed, that all possible states must have already occurred; and that the present state must be a repetition...eternal recurrence means that every time you choose an action you must be willing to choose it for all eternity. And it is the same for every action not made, every stillborn thought, every choice avoided. And all unlived life will remain bulging inside you, unlived through all eternity. And the unheeded voice of your conscience will cry out to you forever...I teach that life should never be modified, or squelched, because of the promise of some other kind of life in the future. What is immortal is this life, this moment. There is no afterlife, no goal toward which this life points, no apocalyptic tribunal or judgement. This moment exists forever, and you, alone, are your only audience."
"It is wrong to bear children out of need, wrong to use a child to alleviate loneliness, wrong to provide purpose in life by reproducing another copy of oneself. It is wrong to seek immortality be spewing one's germ into the future-as though a germ contains your consciousness."
"Your goodness, your duty, your faithfulness-these are the bars of your prison. You will perish from such small virtues. You must learn to know your wickedness. You cannot be partially free: your instincts, too, thirst for freedom; your wild dogs in the cellar-they bark for freedom. Listen harder, can;t you hear them?"
"But I cannot be free",Breuer implored. "I have made sacred marriage vows. I have a duty to my children, my students, my patients."
"To build children you must first be built yourself. Otherwise you'll seek children out of animal needs, or loneliness, or to patch the holes in yourself. Your task as a parent is to produce not another self, another Josef, but something higher. It's to produce a creator."
When I watched the trailer I couldn't help but think of one of my favorite books from when I was a teenager "When Nietzsche Wept" by Irvin D. Yalom. (Though while researching to write this post I also found out that "When Nietzsche Wept" was indeed made into a movie in 2007). "When Nietzsche Wept" takes place in 19th century Vienna on the eve of the birth of psychoanalysis. Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis accepts the plea of a mysterious and unattainable woman, Lou Solome and agrees to treat Friedrich Nietzsche, Europe's greatest philosopher, for his suicidal despair using his experimental "talking cure. Sigmund Freud also features in the story as a young medical intern.
Enjoy some of the quotes that made an impression on me 10 years ago and still do...
"One must have chaos and frenzy within oneself to give birth to a dancing star."
"You will find that no one has ever done anything wholly for others. All actions are self-directed, all service is self-serving, all love self-loving"
"Time is infinite, and force (the basic stuff if the universe) is finite. Given a finite number of potential states of the world and an infinite amount of time that has passed, it follows, Nietzsche claimed, that all possible states must have already occurred; and that the present state must be a repetition...eternal recurrence means that every time you choose an action you must be willing to choose it for all eternity. And it is the same for every action not made, every stillborn thought, every choice avoided. And all unlived life will remain bulging inside you, unlived through all eternity. And the unheeded voice of your conscience will cry out to you forever...I teach that life should never be modified, or squelched, because of the promise of some other kind of life in the future. What is immortal is this life, this moment. There is no afterlife, no goal toward which this life points, no apocalyptic tribunal or judgement. This moment exists forever, and you, alone, are your only audience."
Shall I, throughout all eternity, live a life I regret?
"It is wrong to bear children out of need, wrong to use a child to alleviate loneliness, wrong to provide purpose in life by reproducing another copy of oneself. It is wrong to seek immortality be spewing one's germ into the future-as though a germ contains your consciousness."
"Your goodness, your duty, your faithfulness-these are the bars of your prison. You will perish from such small virtues. You must learn to know your wickedness. You cannot be partially free: your instincts, too, thirst for freedom; your wild dogs in the cellar-they bark for freedom. Listen harder, can;t you hear them?"
"But I cannot be free",Breuer implored. "I have made sacred marriage vows. I have a duty to my children, my students, my patients."
"To build children you must first be built yourself. Otherwise you'll seek children out of animal needs, or loneliness, or to patch the holes in yourself. Your task as a parent is to produce not another self, another Josef, but something higher. It's to produce a creator."
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