A Dangerous Method
2011 · Directed by David Cronenberg
Original language: English
- drama
The story
Seduced by the challenge of an impossible case, the driven Dr. Carl Jung takes the unbalanced yet beautiful Sabina Spielrein as his patient. Jung’s weapon is the method of his master, the renowned Sigmund Freud. Both men fall under Sabina’s spell.
What it’s like
Cool, muted interiors in pre-war Zurich and Vienna: wood-panelled consulting rooms, lamplit studies, sepia-tinted daylight through tall windows, and the drift of cigar smoke hanging in still air. Cronenberg frames his people with formal, measured compositions and holds on faces during long, dialogue-heavy exchanges, so the tension lives in glances, pauses and held silences rather than in movement. The score stays sparse and restrained, leaving room for the clink of teacups and the scratch of pens. The mood is intellectual, faintly feverish and quietly erotic, with the slow unease of watching three brilliant minds rub against one another. Sexual content is frank and recurs, including spanking and a discreet affair; there is no gore, and the violence is brief and psychological. It suits a slow, attentive evening, for viewers who enjoy talky period dramas about desire, power and the boundaries of the self.
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