The Big Picture
- Anthony Hopkins and Matthew Goode star as Freud and C.S. Lewis in the new film Freud’s Last Session, which opens on December 22.
- The film explores a fictional meeting between Freud and Lewis in London in 1945, where they debate the nature of the divine.
- Freud begins to psychoanalyze Lewis as they argue their opposing beliefs, showcasing the clash between atheism and Christianity.
Two great thinkers of the 20th century meet in the new trailer for Freud’s Last Session. Anthony Hopkins plays Sigmund Freud and Matthew Goode plays C.S. Lewis in the new film, which will open in limited release on December 22. An adaptation of Mark St. Germain‘s stage play of the same name, Freud’s Last Session is set in September 1945, when the dying Freud has escaped to London from Nazi-controlled Vienna. There, he meets Oxford professor Lewis, who has yet to write the Narnia books that would earn him literary immortality. A devout Christian, Lewis wants to debate Freud, a longtime atheist, on the nature of the divine, and the trailer teases that altercation, as each man attempts to argue his side; along the way, Freud begins to psychoanalyze his new acquaintance.
Freud did, in fact, escape to London following the Nazi annexation of Austria, but there is no evidence that he met Lewis during his brief sojourn in London. The film will also star Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin) as Freud’s daughter Anna, Jodi Balfour (For All Mankind) as Freud’s family friend Dorothy Burlingham, Pádraic Delaney (The Wind That Shakes the Barley) as Lewis’ brother Warren, and Stephen Campbell Moore (War of the Worlds) as Lewis’ longtime friend and fellow writer J.R.R. Tolkien. Sony Pictures Classics will open the film in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York on December 22; a wide release date has not yet been set.
What Other Movies Feature Freud and Lewis?
The father of psychoanalysis, the life of Sigmund Freud has been depicted on screen several times. He has been the subject of a number of biopics, including John Huston‘s Freud: The Secret Passion, which starred Montgomery Clift in the title role; the 1984 BBC miniseries Freud: The Life of a Dream, starring David Suchet; and David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method, which featured Freud (Viggo Mortensen) working alongside Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). Some less-conventional depictions include the 1983 Dudley Moore comedy Lovesick, in which the ghost of Freud is played by Alec Guinness, and The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, in which Sherlock Holmes and John Watson travel to Vienna to seek the aid of Freud (Alan Arkin). Lewis’ most notable on-screen depiction was the BAFTA-winning 1994 film Shadowlands, in which Lewis was portrayed by Anthony Hopkins.
Freud’s Last Session was directed by Mark Brown; he also co-wrote the screenplay with Mark St. Germain, who wrote the stage play. The film was produced by Alan Greisman, Rick Nicita, Meg Thomson, and Hannah Leader, and co-produced by Aiofe O’Sullivan and Tristan Orpen Lynch of Subotica Operations.
Freud’s Last Session will hit movie theaters in New York and Los Angeles on December 22, 2023. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates, and watch the new trailer below.
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