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1919

1984, Movie, NR, 99 mins

1919: Review

Made by Channel 4 in Great Britain and the British Film Institute, this retrospective drama looks and feels as though it might have been a play adapted for television, then released in the remainder of the world as a feature film. Sophie Rubin (Maria Schell) and Alexander Scherbatov (Paul Scofield) are two older people who were patients of Sigmund Freud back in 1919, 65 years earlier. Sophie's been living in the US for many years. When she sees Alexander interviewed on television and talking of his days with the Viennese master, she decides that she has to meet him and discuss how the process of psychiatry worked for him. She flies to Vienna, and the two recall their sessions on Freud's couch as they sit in Alexander's kitschy flat, with the picture cutting between the past and present. Scofield and Schell are superb and do their best with the material, but the whole premise is a conceit that only serves to poke some fun at Freud. leave a comment