Matter of Heart

A bio-doc about Jung, the man who took the sex out of psychoanalysis, put the supernatural in, and rechristened it Analytical Psychology. After brooding shots of Alpine mists and waterfalls, the stuff of Teutonic fairytale, the film is mostly well-heeled talking heads reminiscing about the man and expounding his teachings. Jung comes over like Dr Shorofsky in Fame - a loveable old grouch. For anyone coming from psychiatry, psychoanalysis, or just plain old messed-up common sense, the Jungian message may seem quite weird. But weird or not, it is quite well explored here as Jung's disciples, all quite old now of course, circle round selected themes - among them the role of the anima and animus in psychic life, the liberating and initiatory aspects of Jung's relationship with Toni Wolff, the power of the shadow side in human affairs, and Jung's apocalyptic visions of the end of the world.