The character of Prof. Louis Levy was created by Woody Allen for the movie Crimes and Misdemeanors. He was really the Psychotherapist Martin S. Bergmann, who was a Clinical Professor of Psychology in NYU. There is an interesting interview with Martin S. Bergmann in the 2nd part of the BBC series The Century of the Self (see my post Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays and the PR Century).
“You will notice that what we are aiming at when we fall in love is a very strange paradox. The paradox consists of the fact that when we fall in love we are seeking to re-find all or some of the people to whom we were attached as children. On the other hand we ask of our beloved to correct all of the wrongs that these early parents or siblings inflicted on us. So that love contains in it a contradiction, the attempt to return to the past and the attempt to undo the past.”
After the character of Prof. Louis Levy committed suicide in the film, Cliff Stern (Woody Allen) reviewed a clip from the documentary footage in which Levy states: “But we must always remember that when we are born we need a great deal of love to persuade us to stay in life. Once we get that love, it usually lasts us. But the universe is a pretty cold place. It’s we who invest it with our feelings. And under certain conditions, we feel that the thing isn’t worth it anymore.”
Further reading:
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I just saw C&M for the first time, and it was deeply satisfying, as well as very intriguing. Looking to learn about Louis Levy I found your great post. Thank you for putting this out.
Martin Bergmann, hmmm.
When I was younger I had very little affinity for Woody Allen’s films. But now that I am a fully fledged failure, they speak to me on many levels!
Jim P.
Don’t give up, Jim! There is still love to be loved out there.
Hi,
I just watched C&M and surprise surprise also got interested by this character of Dr.Levy who seems like a wise meditative version of Allen himself. I can’t but wonder on how W.Allen decided to include this bit which seems far from random to me…don’t you think? Indeed I would appreciate any clues about the source of the passages that W.Allen used for the scripts of Dr. Levy.
btw. just a thought, but doesn’t C&M look as a prototype of MatchPoint? I personally preferred the latter, but still quite interesting the former.
Marcelo, Woody is one of the most analyzed people in the known world, this theme is natural for him. Besides as I wrote the Professor was playing himself, so this was not an invented role. My guess is that Woody knew him somehow.
PS I don’t know about Match Point.
Yes, C&M was totally the prototype for Match Point. But I much preferred the former. It probably depends on what order you watch them in!
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