Nineteen Nineteen

For Sophie (Schell), the past is literally a foreign country; when she flies from New York to Vienna to see Alexander Scherbatov (Scofield), it is to explore that forgotten territory. For in 1919 they were both patients of Dr Freud. Together they dredge their memories, and map out not only the confessions of the couch, but also the huge historical shifts that separated them; like Freud himself, they were victims of the Nazi arrival. The film operates in much the same way as the talking cure itself; Freud's skilful probings are heard (Finlay's voice) though he is never seen; and the film makes sense of the past by the same shifting, organic, inexplicable process. A sensitive, interior film, with all the restorative power that Freud must have hoped for. CPea.