Freud

Released Dec 12, 1962

2h 20m

Biography

List

78%

9 Reviews

Tomatometer

71%

500+ Ratings

Audience Score

John Huston's biopic of Sigmund Freud (Montgomery Clift) follows the progress of the father of psychoanalytical psychiatry as he develops the notion that neurosis stems from sexual repression. By treating patients with various issues, including a woman haunted by recurring dreams (Susannah York) and a man with an Oedipus complex (David McCallum), Freud experiences epiphanies that lead to the birth of modern analysis, despite the scorn his theories initially receive from his colleagues.

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steve d

The performances helped the script a lot.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

Despite a tortured performance by Clift and a characteristically atmospheric score by Jerry Goldsmith, this very talky biopic remains uninvolving and prosaic. The occasional Bergmanesque dream sequences only highlight the weaknesses of Huston's direction.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Although it gives a rather simple and compressed insight to the early days of Freuds life, it still comes out as a well crafted and interesting drama with more than enough plot development to keep your eyes on the screen.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

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panayiota k

Montgomery Clift was really cool in the role of Freud and it was interesting to see his theories. However i was expecting more coherence and better quality from a 1962 movie.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

John Huston may have enjoyed the challenge of putting Freud's theories (not his life, exactly) on screen, given the direct parallel between repression of sexual thoughts by the superego and repression of the same by the Hays Office censors. Surely, he also smirked when he put Monty Clift into the lead, knowing that the actor suffered great torment over his homosexuality (leading to emotional and alcoholic problems that troubled this production). Indeed, Huston himself voices Freud's inner thoughts on screen in occasional narration, suggesting his role in directing/dominating Clift. Somehow, despite being all talk talk talk (therapy), the film mostly succeeds and is fairly gripping and noir-ish when Freud faces his own internal conflicts in a dark dream (not unlike Hitch's Dali sequence in Spellbound or Bergman's Wild Strawberries scene). Susannah York's ongoing somatoform problems, Larry Parks' kindly but less brave attempts to treat them, and Eric Portman's dastardly (but secretive) supervision of Freud's early work are all pieces of the puzzle - but all roads lead to his relationships with his parents (of course). For me, it is hard to know how much the audience of the day was able to fill in the gaps of Freud's theories from what is onscreen but the more you know, the more you may see (notwithstanding the schematicity necessary in all film). Not the travesty it could have been and in fact consistently absorbing.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

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Audience Member

The stuff of which nightmares are made of--Excellent bio by Huston!!

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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John Huston

Director

Montgomery Clift

Sigmund Freud

Susannah York

Cecily Koertner

Larry Parks

Dr. Joseph Breuer

Susan Kohner

Martha Freud

Eileen Herlie

Frau Ida Koertner

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Elizabeth Sussex

Sight & Sound

Huston seems inhibited rather than inspired by [the material]: his energy bottled up and his camera forced to a standstill by careful compositions.

Feb 11, 2020

Full Review

Richard Brody

New Yorker

While in different hands (Orson Welles's, for instance) these radical themes could have inspired more hallucinatory, probing, and inward images, Huston nonetheless evokes an apt sense of wonder, admiration, and awe.

Dec 15, 2014

Full Review

Kathy Fennessy

Video Librarian Magazine

...a film of considerable artistic and intellectual merit, and deserves recognition as something other than a production nightmare.

Rated: 3.5/4

Feb 25, 2022

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Here's a movie where the dream sequences appropriately enhance rather than injure the story.

Rated: 3/4

Dec 4, 2021

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Frank J. Avella

Edge Media Network

Clift's performance is eerily effective and pensively restraint.

Rated: B

Nov 2, 2021

Full Review

Clyde Gilmour

Maclean's Magazine

I cannot imagine why director John Huston decided that the painful mumble and glassy stare of Hollywood's Montgomery Clift made him suitable to portray the Viennese father of psychiatry.

Oct 7, 2019

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Synopsis

John Huston's biopic of Sigmund Freud (Montgomery Clift) follows the progress of the father of psychoanalytical psychiatry as he develops the notion that neurosis stems from sexual repression. By treating patients with various issues, including a woman haunted by recurring dreams (Susannah York) and a man with an Oedipus complex (David McCallum), Freud experiences epiphanies that lead to the birth of modern analysis, despite the scorn his theories initially receive from his colleagues.

Director: John Huston
Screenwriter: Charles Kaufman
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Genre: Biography
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 12, 1962, Original
Runtime: 2h 20m