''Transfer'' is a 1966

short film A short film is a film with a low running time. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of not more than 40 minutes including all credits". Other film o ...

written, shot, produced, edited and directed by

David Cronenberg David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...

. It features Mort Ritts and Rafe Macpherson and has a runtime of 7 minutes.

Plot

A psychiatrist and his patient - at a table set for dinner in the middle of a field covered in snow. The psychiatrist has been followed by his obsessive former patient. The only relationship the patient has had which has meant anything to him has been with the psychiatrist. The patient complains that he has invented things to amuse and occasionally worry the psychiatrist but that he has remained unappreciative of his efforts.

Cast

*Mort Ritts *Rafe Macpherson

Production

Cronenberg wrote, shot, directed, and edited the film in 1966 using $300 (). Margaret Hindson and Stephen Nosko, two of his friends, recorded the sound. Cronenberg stated that the title of the film came from

Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...

's concept of

transference Transference () is a phenomenon within psychotherapy in which repetitions of old feelings, attitudes, desires, or fantasies that someone displaces are subconsciously projected onto a here-and-now person. Traditionally, it had solely co ...

Reception

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' criticized the film as "a pathetic effort" that was "horribly acted and scarcely directed". It also accused Cronenberg of stealing the idea from a Nichols and May sketch.

Home video

The short was included along with Cronenberg's other early films on a bonus disc in

Arrow Video An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a Bow and arrow, bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like St ...

's 2015 UK Blu-ray release of ''

Videodrome ''Videodrome'' is a 1983 Canadian science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Debbie Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO of a small UHF telev ...

''. This bonus disc, entitled ''David Cronenberg's Early Works'' was later released on its own a year later.

References

Works cited

* * *

External links

* 1966 films English-language Canadian films Canadian avant-garde and experimental short films Films directed by David Cronenberg 1960s English-language films Canadian student films 1960s Canadian films {{short-film-stub