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FINAL ANALYSIS
FREUD’S LAST SESSION
Two minds clash in ameeting between Sigmund Freud and C.S. Lewis.
Full disclosure, my father’s a psychiatrist,’ director Matthew Brown says cheerily when he calls in from the Florida Keys to talk Teasers through his adaptation of Mark St. Germain’s stage play, itself based on Armand Nicholi’s book. A work of speculative fiction, it posits the idea that during the last weeks of his life and on the eve of World War Two, proud atheist Sigmund Freud met with C.S. Lewis – an Oxford don shaped by Christianity – to discuss life, death and faith. Did he actually? That’s not the point, says Brown, drawn to the project by his family background and the loss in his life that attracts him to the exploration of death and immortality. ‘I’m drawn to working some of that stuff out in my work, my art.’
The project was nearly derailed by death; Christopher Plummer was cast to play Freud but passed away. Brown offered it again to Anthony Hopkins (he’d previously declined due to working on The Father) and was thrilled when he agreed. ‘Then that began a year-long journey with Mr. Hopkins that was very unique. I don’t expect to have it again with any other actor in my life. He just let me behind the curtain on a lifetime – he’s examining his mortality and it was pretty incredible. He has his own process about how he gets [to a role].
It’s very involved and meticulous and it was kind of beautiful. When somebody does it as well as Hopkins, you think it’s just second nature, but he works really hard to this day, and he’s 86.’
Casting Matthew Goode as Lewis (‘Matthew belongs in the same room and on the same stage as Hopkins’), Brown was also interested in expanding the world of psychology outside of the two academics; bringing the work and life of Freud’s daughter, Anna, into the mix, illustrating salient discussion points with flashbacks and exploring both men’s mental roadblocks. ‘You know, the thing with them is, even though they were these great minds, they both had such screwed-up, fucked-up relationships.’
‘One of the hardest things to do in life is to listen’
MATTHEW BROWN
Though their possible meeting happened over eight decades ago and is steeped in early psychoanalysis and devout Christianity, Brown thinks that the Freud/Lewis debate has much to offer modern, polarised audiences. Despite their opposing beliefs, the two academics discuss their thoughts with respect and kindness. ‘They’re people having a civil conversation, which I felt like in the world today doesn’t exist,’ the director nods. ‘One of the hardest things to do in life is to listen. And I suppose [the film] is a thought experiment in a sense – I think that human evolution depends on conversation.’
Most importantly, though, Brown’s shrink dad approved of the finished product. ‘He really enjoyed it! That was a big deal for me.’ JANE CROWTHER
FREUD’S LAST SESSION OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 14 JUNE.