Young Dr. Freud

If Sigmund Freud really did say that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, one can understand why it would be to his advantage to believe it: the good doctor is said to have smoked more than 20 stogies a day. That's just one of the insights to be gleaned from this worthy documentary about the man who pioneered the scientific study of the unconscious, better known as psychoanalysis. Originally airing on PBS, this two-part program from legendary filmmaker David Grubin (LBJ, Napoleon) delves into Freud's life (his Vienna upbringing, his marriage and family life, his own psychological problems) as well as his life's work--including the various techniques that he developed and used, such as dream analysis, hypnosis, and the basic “talking cure” in which analysts (then and now) help patients uncover the past and reveal its effects on their present states of mind. Narrated by Blair Brown, with Liev Schreiber as the voice of Freud, this chronicle of one of the most influential men of the 20th century combines dramatic recreations, readings, and interviews with scholars and psychoanalysts to limn an illuminating portrait of Freud, from his birth in 1856 to the publication of his landmark work The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Graham)