Freud’s Last Session (12A)

The screening on Thu 11 Jul at 2pm will be relaxed for people living with dementia.

It’s September 1939, and England has declared war on Germany. The “father of psychoanalysis,”  summons author/Oxford theologian C.S. Lewis to his home. Freud and his family, including his daughter Anna also a psychoanalyst, fled Vienna and Hitler’s invading forces; Lewis, whose Narnia books will bring him acclaim, is a former atheist who’s now a devout Christian. Freud aims to have a debate with Lewis about the younger man’s views and the damage — reflected in Nazi atrocities — that unquestioned belief brings. But Lewis has a convert’s courage, which stokes the 83-year-old Freud’s intensity.

Meanwhile, Anna Freud plans to reveal truths to her father, including how their intense attachment has affected her, as well as her life with lesbian lover Dorothy Tiffany Burlingham, with whom Anna started a center for childhood psychology. It’s essential to Anna that she tell everything to her father — who spent years analyzing Anna, as he did other family members — because the jaw cancer Freud has battled for years is worsening, and the famous psychoanalyst plans to commit suicide before the pain gets any worse.

Freud’s mortality, and what Lewis believes comes after death, further fuels their discussion, as the two men clash and question each other about science, faith, love, the human condition, and what divides — and could possibly unite — the aspirations of the mind and the needs of the soul.

FREUD’S LAST SESSION explores questions facing all of us, and sees a historical moment that echoes current conflicts, seeks to understand free will, faith, and mortality, and explores how two renowned intellects find connection across a seemingly unbridgeable difference.

‘Anthony Hopkins as the master analyst’- ★★★ The Guardian

‘Hopkins delivers a lively performance’ – The Washington Post

Director – Matthew Brown

Cast – Sir Anthony Hopkins, Matthew Goode, Liv Lisa Fries, Jodi Balfour

• Seating accessibility information

  Cinema

  Seat size

  Seats in the Cinema are 45cm (172/3“) wide and 46cm (18“) deep, are 40cm (152/3“) from the floor, and have 12cm (42/3“) between seats.

  Armrests

  Seats in the Cinema have armrests that do not fold away, and cannot be completely removed.

  Legroom

  Seats in the cinema have 30cm (112/3”) of legroom in front of seats, with additional legroom on row A and seats B1-B4 and B11-B14.

  Further information

  If you have any questions about accessibility our Box Office team are always happy to help and can be contacted on 01642 525199 or by emailing [email protected] - you can also tell us about your access requirements when prompted to do so during the online booking process.

• BBFC rating information (may contain spoilers)

  Violence

  There are brief scenes of warfare during the First World War, including explosions and gunfire in the trenches and No Man’s Land, as well as references to wartime death tolls in news reports.

  Threat and horror

  A man experiences what appears to be a panic attack in a confined space as he shelters from a possible air raid. Characters are at risk of death and injury on the First World War battlefield. Flashback scenes show a frightened woman being taken prisoner for a brief period by the Gestapo, but she is released unharmed.

  Language

  There is mild bad language (‘bloody’, ‘bastard’), as well as milder terms which include ‘God’.

  Sex

  There are references to sex in the context of psychoanalysis, including mention of ‘latent perversions’, castration, unhealthy attachments to parental figures and ‘sado-masochistic’ fantasies. Characters discuss moral issues around sexuality and sexual orientation, and a woman talks about a sexual fantasy she has in moderate, but not graphic, detail. A couple are briefly seen caressing in bed together in a darkly lit fantasy sequence.

  Discrimination

  A radio plays a section of Hitler’s Reichstag speech, in which he threatens the ‘annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe’ and is met with cheers of ‘Sieg Heil’ from the audience; there are other references to Antisemitism as well as the persecution of Jews during this period in history. A man refers to mental patients as ‘raving lunatics’.

  Drugs

  A man adds morphine to glasses of whisky, in order to manage pain caused by cancer.

  Injury detail

  A seriously ill man coughs blood into handkerchiefs and there is occasional sight of blood around his mouth and oral prosthetic in the context of his worsening health. Soldiers are shown with moderate bloody injuries in the aftermath of war violence.

  Theme

  A man is living in pain with a form of terminal oral cancer. There are scenes of emotional upset as a man speaks about his rage at the untimely loss of his daughter and grandson to illness.

  Flashing/flickering lights

  This work contains flashing images which may affect viewers who are susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy.

  Suicide and self-harm

  A man contemplates taking his own life to escape the pain of his terminal illness. There are other undetailed references to suicide and a woman is given a suicide pill for her to use in the event of being mistreated by Nazi forces; however, she does not take the pill.