Rent Freud's Last Session (2023)
3.1 of 5 from 54 ratings
2h 24min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
It's September 1939, and England has declared war on Germany. The father of 'psychoanalysis', Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins), a recent escapee with his daughter (Nina Kolomiitseva) from the Nazi regime, receives a visit from the formidable Oxford Don C.S. Lewis (Matthew Goode), a former atheist who is now a devout Christian. Sparking a debate with the younger man about the damage that unquestioned belief may bring, Freud's mortality, and what Lewis believes comes after death, fuels their discussion, as the two men clash and question each other about science, faith, love, the human condition, and what divides - and could possibly unite - the aspirations of the mind and the needs of the soul, interweaving the lives of Freud and Lewis, past, present, and fantasy in a story that bursts from the confines of Freud's study, and delves into the deeper realms of both men's psyche. - Actors:
- Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, Orla Brady, George Andrew-Clarke, Rhys Mannion, Padraic Delaney, Stephen Campbell Moore, Peter Warnock, Aidan McArdle, Thom Bishops, Nina Kolomiitseva, Gary Buckley, Emmet Kirwan, David Shields, Anna Amalie Blomeyer, Johannes Schreiber, Eimear Dolan
- Directors:
- Matt Brown
- Producers:
- Matt Brown, Alan Greisman, Hannah Leader, Tristan Lynch, Rick Nicita, Robert Stillman, Meg Thomson
- Writers:
- Mark St. Germain, Matt Brown, Armand M. Nicholi Jr
- Studio:
- Vertigo
- Genres:
- Drama
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 28/10/2024
- Run Time:
- 149 minutes
- Languages:
- English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.39:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
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Reviews (2) of Freud's Last Session
A waste of time - Freud's Last Session review by CH
This is a rotten film, seemingly written by someone who understands neither Christianity nor Freud's work in psychoanalysis. Freud is portrayed as a bumbling old fool with bad manners and Lewis as a weak sentimentalist with no intellectual vigour. Neither of these portrayals could be further from the truth. Whoever wrote the dialogue can have had little understanding of the philosophical issues involved- indeed there was little real discussion at all, just a lot of rather immature giggling from Freud and some rueful grimaces from Lewis. There was one detail- if it was really the case that Freud allowed his daughter Anna to be arrested instead of him, then that was a despicable act and unworthy of any man, atheist or believer. If this really happened, and I hope it didn't, Freud is not fit to be considered as a humane person at all.
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Flawed, Wordy, Stagey, Imagined Reality Film of Something that Never Happened - Freud's Last Session review by PV
This is based on a stage play, unsurprisingly - its attempt to use fantasy elements cannot get away from the wordy stagey origins.
Thing is, this is what I call IMAGINED REALITY. at the end the captions tell us about Freud and CS Lewis, and then state an unknown Oxford Don visited Freud in 1939 - from that, this was constructed by a playwright Mark St Germain to debate faith and belief really. All fine for what it is but probably more suited to the theatre actually.
Tony Hopkins cruises and never quite convinces as Freud - maybe someone could have taught him how to pronounce German words authentically.
It is what it is. I have no idea if the female characters, daughter etc, feature a lot in the stage play, but it seems this is an attempt to woke up the film, as with SO many these days that shoehorn women characters into plots, always as 'strong and independent' women of course... And we even have here one of the 6000 black people who lived in the UK in 1939. What a coincidence.
A rainy afternoon film, not offensive in the least to me but then I am not a worshipper of any religion so even the nonsense woowoo of the Da Vinci Code does not trigger me.
Passable, so 3 stars.
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