Freud (review)

NEW7 INTERNATIONAL GROUP FORMED Some of you may have received a sample issue of the new Newsletter published by the International Association for the Study of History and the Audiovisual Media. For more information on the eight-page publication which is planned for twice each year contact: History and the Audiovisual Media, Historisk Institut, Norregade 15 111, DK 1165 Copenhagen K. The Historians Film Committee has already moved to establish regular communication and cooperation with this new group and will, of course, keep you informed of all their activities. FILM COMMITTEE TO SPONSOR CHAPLIN FE STIVAL IN WASHINGTON The Historians Film Committee will sponsor a festival of Charlie Chaplin films at the A.H.A. convention in Washington, D.C, this December. Modem Times (1936) and The Great Dictator (1940) will each be screened twice, and a workshop and discussion session will concentrate on ways that these films can be most effectively used in teaching history FILM REVIEWS Freud ( 1 7 min., color/b&w, 1 6mm), directed by Gene Friedman ( 1 975), available from Filmmakers Library, 290 West End Avenue, N.Y. 1 0023. Shot in 1938, at Freud's office at 19 Berggasse in Vienna, this film allows the viewer an intimate glimpse into the innermost life of Sigmund Freud. The office is crowded with ancient statuary, pieces from Egypt and Assyria that Freud collected through his lifetime, and the mood created is an eerie one, suggestive of the irrational elements of the unconscious. The interwoven musical background reinforces the otherworldly quality of this almost magical place, and the comment that Freud knew his collection intimately and would often touch these figures while talking, leads the imagination to new heights of contemplation about the august founder of psychoanalysis. It has been said that a person's home reflects his personality: Freud's room is startling in its packed bookshelves and rows of statues. The superb still photos of the offices which form the basis of this film were taken shortly before the entire contents of the house were shipped to London, in 1938. Freud's presence among these symbols of an ancient age, one of the founders of the modern mind situated among the relics of the past, suggests the seamless web that binds past and present. Associations from present to ages past, universal associations, impossible associations, messages leaping from the hollow eyes of an ancient mask. It is impossible to convey by words alone the rich and complex visual surroundings that Freud inhabited for 45 years, years in which Freud was creating some of the seminal works of our age. The student must see the specifics of Freud's environment, feel the complex order that gives meaning to this important room. Elaine Nicola, M.D.. ChiefPsychiatrist, Long Island Consultation Center 47 ...