Interpretation of Dreams (film)
Encyclopedia
Interpretation of Dreams a.k.a Tolkovanie snovideniy is a 1990 feature documentary film
by Andrei Zagdansky
, produced in the Soviet Union during the perestroika
period. Using extensive quotes from several Freudian works still banned by the Soviet censorship at the time ( The Interpretation of Dreams
, Totem and Taboo
, Civilization and Its Discontents
) the documentary interprets the pivotal points of European history of the past century – the rise of Nazism and Communism - from a psychoanalytical point of view.
Vincent Canby
wrote in The New York Times:
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
by Andrei Zagdansky
Andrei Zagdansky
Andrei Zagdansky is an American and Russian/Ukrainian independent documentary filmmaker.-Biography:Zagdansky attended Kiev State Institute of Theatrical Arts, graduating in 1979. He worked as a film director for Kievnauchfilm studio in Kiev from 1981 through 1988, and at film studio Thursday from...
, produced in the Soviet Union during the perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
period. Using extensive quotes from several Freudian works still banned by the Soviet censorship at the time ( The Interpretation of Dreams
The Interpretation of Dreams
The Interpretation of Dreams is a book by psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. The first edition begins:.The book introduces Freud's theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation...
, Totem and Taboo
Totem and Taboo
Totem and Taboo: Resemblances Between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics is a book by Sigmund Freud published in German in 1913 under the title Totem und Tabu: Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker...
, Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents
Civilization and Its Discontents is a book by Sigmund Freud. Written in 1929, and first published in German in 1930 as Das Unbehagen in der Kultur , it is considered one of Freud's most important and widely read works....
) the documentary interprets the pivotal points of European history of the past century – the rise of Nazism and Communism - from a psychoanalytical point of view.
Reception
Interpretation of Dreams received a Grand Prix of the All-Union Documentary Film Festival and was successfully screened at a number of international film festivals - IDFA in Amsterdam, New Directors/New Films and Glasnost Series for the Lincoln center in NYC, Flaherty Film Seminars, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Kraków International Film Festival, London Jewish Film Festival, Boston Jewish Film Festival etc.Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
wrote in The New York Times:
... an entire country is put on the couch to be analyzed by the film maker using Sigmund Freud as his guide.
Mr. Zagdansky juxtaposes quotes from Freud, which are read on the soundtrack, and the history of the Soviet Union as captured in vintage newsreels and other old films.
The tone is that of an enlightened skeptic; the manner witty. The film attempts to come to terms with a time that now seems to have been seriously neurotic, if not worse.
External links
- Interpretation of Dreams on AZ Films website.
- Two Roads on the Trail of History by Vincent Canby, The New York Times