Queer Freud

June 21, 2025

Alan Cumming is Sigmund Freud in V13

Played by Alan Cumming, does Freud read queer in V13? I think that’s an open question.  Freud saw psychoanalysis as an important ally to universal emancipation—especially in regards to what for Freud touched upon human sexuality. I think as a figure of emancipation is the way Freud is presented in V13—through Alain’s writing (Alain Didier-Weill) and Alan’s performance (Alan Cumming), as well as through my direction.

Siegfried Kracauer, the German Jewish film theorist, was a friend and intellectual compatriot to Walter Benjamin, the great unorthodox fellow German Jewish Marxist who is quoted near the start of V13. Kracauer was critical in his writing about the American star system. He argued that, if an actor is a star it makes it impossible to appreciate the actor’s performance without associating their career on a meta level beyond the role being played. Yet Alfred Hitchcock put this to good use when he made Psycho (1960). By casting Janet Leigh as Marion Crane, he purposely misled early audiences to expect that such a big star would still be alive at the end instead of dead at the bottom of a shower a mere 30 minutes into the film. Similarly, I was very aware in casting Alan as Freud of Alan’s activism for LGBTQ rights. I had also seen him live on Broadway in Cabaret in the role of the Emcee with Michelle Williams in the role of Sally Bowles (Michelle Williams starred in my first feature film, A Hole In One, 2004). As anyone who regularly reads my newsletter knows, Stanley Kubrick is a filmmaker of utmost importance to me. Alan’s performance in a single scene as the hotel clerk who flirts with Tom Cruise’s character in Eyes Wide Shut (1999) is an unforgettable tour de force burned into my brain.

Alan Cumming’s activism and queer roles can arguably be said to be inflected in how we read his performance as Freud and absolutely this is how I think Freud, were he alive today, would have wanted it.

Happy Pride Month,

Richard