The Cut

A woman´s face reduced to garish red lips displays all the symptoms of hysteria as described at the end of the 19th century by Viennese doctor Joseph Breuer, a colleague of Sigmund Freud. So begins Geoffrey Garrison´s video work The Cut, which draws on the popular biopic Freud: The Secret Passion [1962], directed by John Huston. Six sequences which repeatedly overlap explore the problem of how history is portrayed, showing how fiction steps in to fill any gaps in the storyline. The fact that each actor plays several different roles makes this weave of quoted and original material even more difficult to unravel - the only constant is the figure of director John Huston. The figure of actor Montgomery Clift, for example, who played Sigmund Freud in Huston´s film, discusses sleep problems with a fictive Marilyn Monroe - his film partner in The Misfits [1961]. The director character is questioned by the FBI on his relationship to communism. In numerous additional references from movie history, the video not only explores the conflicts involved in fulfilling the expectations of both producer and filmgoers, but also frames a whimsical view of how a Hollywood film is made. (Johanna Zwanzig)