Freud's Last Session

{{Infobox film

| image = Freuds_last_session_poster.jpg

| caption = US release poster

| director = Matthew Brown

| producer = {{plainlist|

Alan Greisman
Rick Nicita
Meg Thomson
Hannah Leader
Tristan Orpen Lynch
Robert Stillman
Matthew Brown

}}

| screenplay = {{Plainlist|

Mark St. Germain
Matthew Brown

}}

| based_on = {{based on|Freud's Last Session|Mark St. Germain}}

| starring = {{plainlist|

}}

| music = Coby Brown

| cinematography = Ben Smithard

| editing = Paul Tothill

| production_companies = {{plainlist|

Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland
Last Session Productions
Subotica Productions
14 Sunset

}}

| distributor = {{Plainlist|

Sony Pictures Classics (Select territories)
Vertigo Releasing{{cite web|title=All Future Releases|website=Film Distributors' Association|access-date=3 March 2024|url=https://filmdistributorsassociation.com/release-schedule/all-future-releases/}} (United Kingdom and Ireland)

}}

| released = {{film date|df=yes|2023|10|27|AFI|2023|12|22|United States|2024|6|14|United Kingdom}}

| runtime = 122 minutes

| country = {{Plainlist|

United States
United Kingdom{{Cite web |last=Debruge |first=Peter |date=2023-10-28 |title=Freud's Last Session Review: Anthony Hopkins Slips Easily Into Sigmund's Skin in Talky Two-Hander |url=https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/freuds-last-session-review-anthony-hopkins-1235771657/ |access-date=2023-12-08 |website=Variety}}

}}

| language = English

| budget =

| gross = $2.7 million{{cite Box Office Mojo |title= Freud's Last Session |url=https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt20420628/ |access-date=6 September 2024}}

}}

Freud's Last Session is a 2023 drama film starring Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour, Jeremy Northam, and Orla Brady. It is based on the stage play of the same name by Mark St. Germain, which itself is based upon the book The Question of God, by Armand Nicholi. The film was directed by Matthew Brown and written by St. Germain.

Freud's Last Session premiered at the 2023 AFI Fest on October 27, 2023. Sony Pictures Classics released the film in a limited release in the United States on 22 December 2023, before expanding wide on 19 January 2024 to mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

A fictional meeting occurs between C. S. Lewis, nicknamed "Jack", and Sigmund Freud, two days after the start of World War II. They debate the existence of God, as Freud greatly resents Lewis's recent rejection of his own strain of atheism in favour of Christianity, and many other subjects. The two men discuss issues such as Lewis's post-traumatic stress disorder as a World War I combat veteran, J. R. R. Tolkien and the Inklings, and the nature of Freud's and Lewis's relationships with other people, such as Freud's daughter Anna, who is codependent upon her father. However, she eventually introduces her lesbian lover, Dorothy Burlingham, to him.

At its close, the film records that Freud died by suicide several weeks later due to the intense pain from his oral cancer; Lewis became a famous author of Christian literature, and the children he took in as evacuees during the war inspired The Chronicles of Narnia; Anna and Dorothy lived together for decades, and Anna became known as the founder of child psychology. The film notes that Freud met with an unidentified Oxford don in the last days of his life, who could possibly have been Lewis.{{Cite web|url= https://www.thewrap.com/freuds-last-session-starring-anthony-hopkins-and-matthew-goode-lands-at-sony-pictures-classics|website=The Wrap|accessdate=March 23, 2023|title= 'Freud's Last Session' Starring Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode Lands at Sony Pictures Classics|first=Umberto|last=Gonzalez|date=November 2, 2022}}

Cast

Production

WestEnd Films and CAA Media Finance took the project for sales to the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022 with Anthony Hopkins cast, and Matthew Brown on board as director for the St. Germain adaptation.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/anthony-hopkins-sigmund-freud-film-cannes-2022-1235151744|website=The Hollywood Reporter|title=Cannes: Anthony Hopkins to Play Sigmund Freud in 'Freud's Last Session'|first=Alex|last=Ritman|date=May 21, 2022|accessdate=March 23, 2023}} The film is produced by Alan Greisman, Rick Nicita, Meg Thomson and Hannah Leader, with production beginning in the U.K. in late January 2023.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/anthony-hopkins-freuds-last-session-sony-pictures-classics-1235254084|website=Hollywood Reporter|first=Alex|last=Ritman|date=November 2, 2022|accessdate=March 23, 2023|title= AFM: Sony Pictures Classics Buys 'Freud's Last Session' Starring Anthony Hopkins as Famed Neurologist}} However, for financial reasons Freud’s Hampstead house and famous psychoanalyst couch were recreated in Dublin at the Ardmore Studios.{{Cite web|website=The Guardian|title=Freudian trip: psychoanalyst's London home recreated in Dublin for major film|first=Dalya|last=Alberge|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/feb/12/sigmund-freud-film-london-home-recreated-dublin|date=February 13, 2023|accessdate=March 23, 2023}} A selection of props from the film (particularly the replica couch and garden tent chair) have since May 2023 been housed at the Freud Museum London. Co-produced by Aoife O’Sullivan and Tristan Orpen Lynch of Subotica Operations, the film received UK Global Screen Fund International Co-production funding.{{Cite web |url=https://www.televisual.com/news/bfi-uk-global-screen-fund-2-2m-to-14-co-pros/ |access-date=April 26, 2023 |website=televisual.com |title=BFI UK Global Screen Fund: £2.2m to 14 co-pros |date=November 21, 2022|first=Pippa |last=Considine}}{{Cite web|website=The Times|access-date=March 23, 2023|title=Irish film industry facing plot twist after Oscars success as streamers withdraw|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/irish-film-industry-facing-plot-twist-after-oscars-success-as-streamers-withdraw-9j6fzn756|first=Lindy|last=Daly|date=March 12, 2023}} An image from principal photography was released in April 2023 with the film entering the final stages of filming in Ireland.{{Cite web |last=Goodfellow |first=Melanie |date=April 11, 2023 |title=First Image Of Anthony Hopkins & Matthew Goode In 'Freud's Last Session' As Legendary Psychoanalyst & C.S. Lewis |url=https://deadline.com/2023/04/first-image-anthony-hopkins-matthew-goode-in-freuds-last-session-1235321753 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411141457/https://deadline.com/2023/04/first-image-anthony-hopkins-matthew-goode-in-freuds-last-session-1235321753/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=11 April 2023 |accessdate=April 11, 2023 |website=Deadline Hollywood}}

Release

Freud's Last Session premiered at the 2023 AFI Fest on October 27, 2023.{{Cite web |last=Hazelton |first=John |title=AFI Fest line-up includes world premiere of Freud's Last Session |url=https://www.screendaily.com/news/afi-fest-line-up-includes-world-premiere-of-freuds-last-session/5186383.article |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=Screen Daily |language=en}} That same month, Sony Pictures Classics purchased the distribution rights for North America, the Middle East, India, Eastern Europe (excluding Russia), and Turkey, as well as airlines worldwide.{{Cite web |last=Grobar |first=Matt |date=2023-10-05 |title=Sony Pictures Classics Dates Freud's Last Session Starring Anthony Hopkins & Matthew Goode – Update |url=https://deadline.com/2023/10/anthony-hopkins-film-freuds-last-session-acquired-by-sony-classics-1235161354/ |access-date=2023-10-06 |website=Deadline Hollywood}} It had a limited release in the United States on 22 December 2023 and in United Kingdom on 14 June 2024.{{Cite The Numbers |id=Freuds-Last-Session-(2023-United-Kingdom) |title=Freud's Last Session (2023) |access-date=6 September 2024}}

Reception

= Box office =

Freud's Last Session grossed $906,283 in the United States and Canada and $1.8 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $2.7 million.

= Critical response =

{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|44|5.7|122|consensus=Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode are a tremendously talented pair, but Freud's Last Session is too scattered and thinly written to take full advantage of their efforts.|access-date=6 September 2024|ref=y}} {{Metacritic film prose|48|18|access-date=6 September 2024|ref=y}}