Freud
2020
Original language: German
- crime
- drama
- mystery
The story
Eager to make his name in 19th-century Vienna, a hungry young Sigmund Freud joins a psychic and an inspector to solve a string of bloody mysteries.
What it’s like
Dark, gritty Vienna in the 1880s: smoky interiors lit by gaslight and oil lamps, cold blue-grey streets, and grimy, claustrophobic rooms where bodies turn up in shadowy alleys and tenements. The camera tends toward restless handheld movement and tight close-ups during interrogations, with a sweeping, somewhat stylized score built on strings and low percussion that pulses under the tension. Its vibe is murky and unsettling, a Gothic detective story with a feverish edge. The pacing is brisk and episodic, each case unspooling in a steady drumbeat of revelation and dread. Emotionally it stays in a cynical register, following a driven, ambitious young doctor who is willing to bend his principles and gradually unravels under his own obsessions. The violence is frequent and graphic, with bloody murders, mutilated corpses, and frank depictions of brutality, and some sexual content and psychological cruelty. It suits viewers who want grim period crime with a cerebral, darkly atmospheric texture and do not mind a lot of gore.
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