Freud: The Secret Passion

Freud: The Secret Passion, directed by John Huston, stars Montgomery Clift as Sigmund Freud in what would be one of his final films. The screenplay's backstory is remarkable: Jean-Paul Sartre submitted a 95 page draft in 1958, but his completed script ran to 700 pages, roughly a twelve hour film; when Huston asked for cuts, Sartre reportedly replied that you could make a four hour film of Ben-Hur, but Texans couldn't sit through four hours of complexes. Sartre ultimately refused screen credit after his falling out with Huston, though much of his script survived into the finished film. Filming in Munich and Vienna took five months and cost roughly 4 million dollars; due to Clift's serious health and substance problems during filming, Universal-International sued him to recoup the cost of delays. The film grossed about 2.9 million dollars, a loss, though critic Bosley Crowther named it one of the year's ten best films; it received two Academy Award nominations, for Original Screenplay and Original Score, and four Golden Globe nominations. Who it's for: anyone curious about a difficult production built on a script a philosopher wrote and then disowned, with a lead actor battling serious health problems throughout filming. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a light biographical account, since the film dives into dense psychoanalytic themes.