David Cronenberg, Michael Fassbender Bring Their Dangerous Method to NYFF

But if you're wondering why a guy like Cronenberg -- whose historic preoccupation with identity and the physical self under threat of all manner of destruction has led from leeching armpits (Rabid) to genetic mutation (The Fly) to car accidents (Crash) to bathhouse brawls (Eastern Promises) -- even had a psychoanalytic triangle in mind in the fist place, Foundas had the same question from the start.

"I don't really think of my other movies at all really," Cronenberg said. "I don't think of what I've done. When I've decided to do something, I'm passionate about it, and I'm only into realizing that particular thing. So I don't think about whether this fits in with anything or if it doesn't or I've done it before. I think when I read Christopher's play -- and I've never seen it performed -- I felt, in retrospect, that I've always wanted to do something about Freud and the birth of psychoanalysis. But to say that isn't to say anything, really, because it's such a vast topic and filled with such incredible characters that surrounded the birth of psychoanalysis-- all of them very eccentric and wonderful. And what I saw in Christopher's play was this fantastic structure that really distilled the essence of the era and of the psychoanalytic moment into, primarily, five characters. And that got me very excited because suddenly that was the structure that could allow me to play with all of those topics.

"I have to point out that the first movie I ever made -- Transfer, which was seven minutes long -- was about a psychiatrist and a patient. That was my first movie! So this really does feel like coming full-circle."

As for Fassbender, he was hooked after meeting Cronenberg for lunch in the filmmaker's home base of Toronto. "That's when he really started directing me, if you like," the actor said, noting how such little things as bonding over a shared love of motor racing wooed him into Method mode.

"He was already planting seeds in my mind then, at that lunch," Fassbender said, "about the story and what he found interesting about these various characters and where he felt Jung was coming from, and his background. [...] And then, really, by the time we got on set, the great thing -- one of the many great things about David -- is that he allows you to sort of breathe within it in your own way. I find again and again that lot of great directors don't give you a huge amount of direction on the day. It's mainly a dinner that you had two nights before or a week before -- just little sorts of hints and little nudges to sway you in certain directions without giving you anything solidly [like], 'You do this.' And I think that for any great director I've worked with, that's sort of the last thing that they want."

In Knightley's case, alas, it might have been the first thing she needed. In any event, A Dangerous Method screens tonight at 6 and 8:30 at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and opens Nov. 23 in limited release. Check back with Movieline then for a full review and other coverage.

Pages: 1 2