A Dangerous Method: Crumbling the Mind, Not By Machines But Words

A Dangerous Method

Directed By: David Cronenberg

Written By: Christopher Hampton, based on his play The Talking Cure, adapted from the novel A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortenson, Kiera Knightly, and Vincent Cassell

Director of Photography: Peter Suschitzky, Editor: Ronald Sanders, Production Designer: James McAteer, Original Music: Howard Shore

Rated: R for psychoanalytical perversions

Read an interview with David Cronenberg, Christopher Hampton, and Michael Fassbender from the New York Film Festival

Cinema and psychoanalysis have a long history together, as the new technology and the striking new school of thought both began and evolved during the turn of the 20^th century. And since the 1970s, psychoanalysis has been used in film theory to explore cinema in new light, where characters once thought to be crazy are instead explored within their Freudian terms of wanting to return the womb or whatnot (Classic Hollywood seems ripe with metaphors for sex looking back).

            So what can we infer about the makers of psychoanalysis? That certainly sounds like an interesting question for David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, a stately and often involving piece on the history of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, as well as the woman that changed everything. On first appearances, Mr. Cronenberg, known for his more graphically violent films from Videodrome and A History of Violence, might seem like the wrong choice for this imperial work from screenwriter Christopher Hampton (adapting his own play The Talking Cure, which was adapted from the book A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr). But thematically, this is a work through and through by Mr. Cronenberg, who explores how an idea, the psychological, can transform, disfigure, and infect the body.

New York Film Festival: David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method

A Dangerous Method (Gala Presentation)

A Film By David Cronenberg

United Kingdom/Canada/Germany

            Cinema and psychoanalysis have a long history together, as the new technology and the striking new school of thought both began and evolved during the turn of the 20^th century. And since the 1970s, psychoanalysis has been used in film theory to explore films in new light, where characters once thought to be crazy are instead explored within their Freudian terms of wanting to return the womb or whatnot (Classic Hollywood seems ripe with metaphors for sex looking back).

            So what psychoanalysis can we read on the makers of psychoanalysis? That certainly sounds like an interesting question for David Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method, a stately and occasionally involving piece on the history of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, as well as the woman that changed everything. On first appearances, Mr. Cronenberg, known for his more graphically violent films from Videodrome, to Crash, to A History of Violence, might seem like the wrong choice for this stately work from screenwriter Christopher Hampton (adapting his own play The Talking Cure, that adapted from the book A Most Dangerous Method by John Kerr). But thematically, this is a work through and through by Mr. Cronenberg, exploring how an idea can transform, disfigure, and infect the body.

'Never Let Me Go' Trailer Proves Adaptation Business Might Not Be Morally Bankrupt

This week, Focus Features posted the trailer for Mark Romanek’s adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro, and they seem to have done a pretty good job. The trailer could come close to giving everything away, but it may have been my strong impressions from reading the novel and seeing all of the crucial scenes, even out of context. For those who know the book, the real question will be if the film follows the tradition of the novel of never truly revealing the truth of the world, but slowly revealing it through accidental bits of dialogue and narration (the wrist-buttons shown in the trailer I think might be too much, and discredit one of my interpretations of the novel). 

Too many trailers these days give away everything (except Chris Nolan’s wondrous looking Inception), so its nice to see something like this trailer, which highlights the strange visual world that Romanek (best known for One Hour Photo, which is good in parts) has created. Also, excellent cast—Carey Mulligan, Kiera Knightly, Sally Hawkins, and my actor to watch, Andrew Garfield, who dazzled me in Red Riding: 1974.

Anyways, the trailer is embedded below. Enjoy!