Not a good film by any means, The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud's best attributes are the CAMPY performances of its veteran camp cast. Carol Kane is as adorable as always, though many of her lines are, like the rest of the script, predictable and uninspiring. Perhaps the saddest aspect of this film, however, is the fact that it was the last major film with the brilliant Klaus Kinski, and his role was so far from a signature piece it's almost an embarrassment.
The plot is pretty silly, and follows a very predictable formula. Sigmund Freud is shown as a young doctor full of neuroses about blood and various other things doctors are not supposed to be concerned with. As he grows into the profession he more or less invented, hypnotism of his patients yields their own self-diagnoses, and he gets rich and famous writing down his patients' ideas. within the last ten minutes or so, a plot develops, simply so the film can end properly, but it's far too late.
Overall, I would characterize this film as tedious. Unlike a few others who have reviewed it, I don't think it really had any potential to begin with, though I did enjoy some of Carol Kane's scenes. My advice is to avoid this one.
The plot is pretty silly, and follows a very predictable formula. Sigmund Freud is shown as a young doctor full of neuroses about blood and various other things doctors are not supposed to be concerned with. As he grows into the profession he more or less invented, hypnotism of his patients yields their own self-diagnoses, and he gets rich and famous writing down his patients' ideas. within the last ten minutes or so, a plot develops, simply so the film can end properly, but it's far too late.
Overall, I would characterize this film as tedious. Unlike a few others who have reviewed it, I don't think it really had any potential to begin with, though I did enjoy some of Carol Kane's scenes. My advice is to avoid this one.