the director’s cut THE DIRECTOR’S CUT Freud’s Doppelgaenger, The Cut, and Deleted Scenes Geoffrey Garrison Contents Introduction 9 Freud’s Doppelgaenger 13 The Cut 157 Deleted Scenes 189 Bibliographical Essay 239 Introduction When the John Huston fi lm Freud the Secret Passion was dubbed into German, nineteen minutes of the English version were left out of the fi lm. This omission occupied the place of desire that led the short video The Cut, realized in 2005 with the support of the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, the Netherlands. I had originally proposed to fi nd the material left out of the German version of the fi lm as the basis for a piece—what exactly that art work would be, I did not know at the time. Three years later, I am putting the fi nishing touches on this book as a way of driving the last nail into the coffi n of what has been a long and obsessive production, with many detours. Taking its title from the practice of releasing expanded versions of fi lms on DVD, The Director’s Cut supplements the nineteen minute fi lm The Cut—nineteen minutes to fi ll, in a roundabout way, the space left by the deleted footage—by supplying some needed background and following some abandoned routes. The fi rst and longest screenplay, Freud’s Doppelgaenger, tells of the fi lming of Freud the Secret Passion through the life of Montgomery Clift, 10 i n t r o d u c t i o n Introduction 11 the actor who portrayed Freud in Huston’s fi lm. The screenplay fol- This book and the short fi lm The Cut would never have come into lows his self-destructive behavior and the car accident that destroyed existence if it were not for a lot of help and support from others along his good looks. It detours into John Huston and Jean-Paul Sartre’s the way. First of all, I would like to thank my parents, June and Jim work process as they conceive the fi lm, before coming back to Clift Garrison, for reading every draft of the screenplay, giving me their ad- and Huston’s confl ict during the fi lming of Freud the Secret Passion. The vice with the story, and checking where my English had been corrupt- screenplay ends with Clift’s slow descent into drug and alcohol abuse ed through years abroad. Thanks to the advisers at the Jan van Eyck and his death in 1966. Academie: to Aglaia Konrad for telling me to get my shit together, Orla In Freud’s Doppelgaenger, there is a scene with Marilyn Barry for practical advice and contacts to actors, and to John Murphy, Monroe during the fi lming of The Misfits, presenting Monroe’s descent Hinrich Sachs, Norman Sanders, Marc de Kesel, Koen Brams. as a mirror image of Clift’s own dissolution. Both struggled with their Thanks also to the Jan van Eyck Academie for fi nancially sup- sexual indetities in the violently conformist 1950s: Marilyn Monroe porting the fi lming of The Cut. I owe a lot to all of those in- with her role as sex symbol and Clift with his closet homosexuality. volved directly with the planning and fi lming of The Cut: Winnie The Deleted Scenes follow Monroe’s marriage with Arthur Miller in Koekelbergh for production assistance and putting up with the more detail—partly in order to focus on the congressional hearings on tons of questions and actor solicitations that clogged up her e-mail, the alleged communist infi ltration of Hollywood and the intellectual Berto Aussems for technical support with the editing software world of America in the 50s, but partly also through for the characters and dvd production. Georg Schoenharting, Jürgen Ruge, Tim van themselves. The HUAC trials present a bitter parody of psychoanalysis, Peppen for their technical expertise and patience, Marlous Borm for which was at its acme in the US at the time; if Freud was trying to re- going above and beyond the call of duty, Peter Kisur for the makeup, lieve suffering by bringing repressed memories out into the open, Mc- and of course the actors: Tomas Spencer, Tom Strauss, Katie Mullins, Carthy and Congress were repressing by forcing secrets into the open. and Peter Gilbert Cotton. Not exactly the same, but it says something about how psychoanalysis I would also like to thank Laura Horelli for her in depth feedback and psychology in general came to be misused to create “normal” sub- on the script over pizza, Kasper Andreasen for advice about graph- jects. ic design, Vinca Kruk and Daniël van der Velden for supplying the As is always the case in research, coincidences and circumstantial Albertina typeface for this book (the same used in the Norton Publish- connections abound: Sartre wrote the Freud screenplay after hav- ing Standard Edition of Freud’s Collected Works in English), Henrik ing adapted Miller’s play The Crucible for cinema; Miller wrote The Zorn for supplying a copy of the John Huston fi lm in German, and Misfits, starring both Monroe and Clift and directed by Huston; Huston John Menick for sending a copy in English. Alice Chauchat supplied and Sartre originally wanted Monroe to star as the hysterical patient in a wonderful translation into French of Sartre’s dialogue in Freud’s Freud, but her analyst objected. Anna Freud opposed the project, ada- Doppelgaenger. mantly declaring that the fi lm bore no likeness to her father, nor could Others along the way, who deserve thanks for advice and feedback any image do him justice. are Sean Snyder, Inga Zimprich, Candice Breitz, Michael Rakowitz, The Cut came out of Freud’s Doppelgaenger as a dream comes out of Tino Sehgal, Heimo Lattner, and Chat. Last but defi nitely not least, the daily impressions, or at least it abstractly represents the history of thanks to Noortje Fischer, who came late in the project, but was indis- what amounts to the Hollywood fantasy of Freud and psychoanalysis, pensable for her emotional support and for being such a good sport keeping in mind the limitations of images as refl ections of historical about running errands during fi lming. persons and their histories. Freud’s Doppelgaenger fade in ext. a mountain pass - night An old locomotive train speeds along through the night, spewing a cloud of steam behind it as it goes. It enters a tunnel in the side of a mountain. int. sleeping compartment It is sometime between 1917 and 1920. A suitcase lies open on the couchette, exposing starched white shirts, a grey suit, and a notepad fi lled with writing. An open passport reveals the suitcase’s owner to be none other than sigmund freud, the founder of psychoanalysis. The camera fl oats through the compartment alighting on a box of short cigars, on a notepad the words ‘das Unheimliche’ have been hastily scribbled. moving into: int. wc We sneak up on Freud as he trims his beard in the mirror of the WC. He is dressed in a sleeping gown and wears a traveling cap upon his head. As he grooms, he scrutinizes his face in the mirror, check- ing for stray hairs. This is the classic image of Freud we are familiar with from countless photographs. Piercing eyes, white hair, closely- cropped beard. He packs his toiletries into a shaving kit and exits to: int. sleeping compartment Closing the door of the WC behind him, he does not pay careful at- tention that it is securely shut. It rattles slightly with the movement of the train. Freud places the leather shaving kit into his bag, closes the suitcase and replaces it on the ledge above the couchette. He sits down and begins reading from a book of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Der Sandman. He takes notes in his notepad as he does so. 16 f r e u d ’ s d o p p e l g a e n g e r Freud’s Doppelgaenger 17 The train jolts suddenly, his pencil skids across the page and the tip int. bloomingdale’s breaks. He looks at it annoyed when a second jolt puts the light out. A busy, brightly lit department store. Elevator music fi lls the air. A a moment of blackness salesgirl busily arranges a display of men’s underpants. Clift ap- proaches the girl casually. When the light comes back on, he fi nds himself face to face with a strange, uncanny specter standing in the compartment looking at clift him. The man, similar in appearance to Freud only more emaciated, (smiling charmingly) stares back at him. He opens his mouth as if to speak. As he does so, Excuse me, miss. Can you tell me where to fi nd an his jaw pops mechanically. umbrella? freud salesgirl Verzeihen Sie, mein Herr, aber— (turning around) Across from the cosmetics counter. He begins to rise, but then stops short. The specter, who a moment before seemed entirely manifest, is gone. In his place, Freud sees only She points in the direction. his own image refl ected in the mirror of the WC door, which came open as a result of the jolt. He shivers and closes the door of the clift WC, this time making sure it is quite secure. He rubs a hand over his Thanks! eyes, closes the book he still holds in his hand, and lays down on the couchette, switching off the light. Clift walks off in the direction she had pointed to. The salesgirl watches for a second then goes behind the counter, picks up a phone darkness and begins to dial.