![We watched A Dangerous Method this weekend. Having read a lot of Freud and loved every Cronenberg film I’ve ever seen I was really looking forward to it. In the end I was surprised at how understated it is, though thinking about it I guess that’s a fit form for the subject of repression. In fact, the story drops off unfulfilled at the end, perhaps a deeper reflection on what happens when lives are repressed. It certainly views Jung and Sabina’s ultimately repressed love and desire for one another as a dark sadness that pervades as a result of preserving things that regrettably don’t bring them happiness.
Freud is hilariously repressed throughout and funny with it, though I was a bit annoyed Cronenberg didn’t take on the legend with a bit more authority - it was a side glance at Freud when as an audience member I really wanted him in the spotlight. It used another story to access some of his thought but I would have liked a deeper more personal analysis, that’s what I’d hoped for any way. It’s a good film though and I’d watch it again to find out more, it has those layers.
So it seems this repression business really is a ‘dangerous method’. What a bind though; if you repress too much you go mad; if you don’t have some repression you lose some frisson; if you overcome repression you open yourself up to all sorts of damage you can’t control. How much better it must sometimes be to never put yourself out there and live only through books.
(pic via redkeep):
[MOVIE SCRAPBOOK] - A Dangerous Method (2011)
“If there is one thing I’ve learned in my short life, it’s this: never repress anything.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzm7m4nwof1r0mxkyo1_500.png)
We watched A Dangerous Method this weekend. Having read a lot of Freud and loved every Cronenberg film I’ve ever seen I was really looking forward to it. In the end I was surprised at how understated it is, though thinking about it I guess that’s a fit form for the subject of repression. In fact, the story drops off unfulfilled at the end, perhaps a deeper reflection on what happens when lives are repressed. It certainly views Jung and Sabina’s ultimately repressed love and desire for one another as a dark sadness that pervades as a result of preserving things that regrettably don’t bring them happiness.
Freud is hilariously repressed throughout and funny with it, though I was a bit annoyed Cronenberg didn’t take on the legend with a bit more authority - it was a side glance at Freud when as an audience member I really wanted him in the spotlight. It used another story to access some of his thought but I would have liked a deeper more personal analysis, that’s what I’d hoped for any way. It’s a good film though and I’d watch it again to find out more, it has those layers.
So it seems this repression business really is a ‘dangerous method’. What a bind though; if you repress too much you go mad; if you don’t have some repression you lose some frisson; if you overcome repression you open yourself up to all sorts of damage you can’t control. How much better it must sometimes be to never put yourself out there and live only through books.
(pic via redkeep):
[MOVIE SCRAPBOOK] - A Dangerous Method (2011)
“If there is one thing I’ve learned in my short life, it’s this: never repress anything.”
