Sunday 30 September 2012

New(ish) Film: 'HYSTERIA'


I loved this film!

Let's get a couple of things out of the way first.
It was actually completed in 2011 and is only now being given limited release in selected cinemas. Pity, because for me it was a tonic, and really deserves to have had a wider distribution.
.....and, yes, it features Rupert Everett - not exactly flavour of the month in the light of his recent comments opposing equal marriage. For that reason his fairly significant role here had, for me, a jarring effect which, I hope, will fade in time. (But only if he retracts and apologises).

But back to the film.
London - late 19th century. A doctor (the ever-admirable Jonathan Pryce, who always raises the standard of anything he appears in, be it on stage or on screen) runs a practice which helps its wealthy and mature lady clients (all middle-aged or more) to overcome and release their peculiarly female(!) condition of 'hysteria' due, so the theory goes, to the insufficient and too infrequent stimulation of the uterine tract. He personally employs his own manual method until, because of its popularity and with his services so much in demand, he takes on a young doctor as assistant.
With the help of his friend (Everett), the young doctor (Hugh Dancy - a bit of a hottie!) accidentally hits on the idea of turning the former's invention of an electrically-powered feather duster into (shhhhh! whisper it!) -  a VIBRATOR! The effect on the ladies is.....well, dramatic!
      The undoubted star of the film is Maggie Gyllenhall (who provides, later on, a romantic interest) as a teacher of working-class children who is also the wilful, energetic, feminist daughter of  the elder doctor. Her English accent is remarkable - upper class without being distractingly cut-glass. She holds her own with honours among a fine cast of stalwart British actors and actresses.
    The whole film is handsomely shot - and with a noticeably superior screenplay, to which I principally mean the vocabulary employed. It was a pleasure to listen to.

The film reminded me quite a bit of the 1994 Anthony Hopkins/Matthew Broderick film 'The Road to Wellville', also under-rated, I thought. (Broderick, in that, looking never hotter, before or since, with his whiskers!)

'Hysteria' encapsulates a lot of the attitudes towards women in the Victorian era (and later - even present-day), summarised neatly in a big speech by Dancy in a courtroom scene towards the end. But there were also more than a few LOL moments.
Here's just one:-
The Jonathan Pryce character is berating his young assistant about complaints he's been getting from the ladies about the latter's digital technique falling below the expected standard (due to over-use). Before actually giving him the push, he sternly admonishes him with the information.......

                    ".....and Mrs Parsons has stopped coming altogether!"


I'm happy to award 'Hysteria' a score of..............8/10.


22 comments:

  1. Interesting review
    I will enjoy this one
    Incidently Jonathan Pryce is the patron on our local cineman in Prestatyn..the scala....

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  2. You will, J.G. I can promise you that!

    I saw the wonderful Pryce in 'Miss Saigon' very shortly after it opened in London.
    I would so LOVED to have seen him doing Professor Higgins and actually SINGING the songs, instead of the Rex Harrison 'talking-on-pitch' method - which is also fine, but why does everyone else also have to do that?

    Btw: Did you ever see the film 'Carrington' (1995) with Emma Thompson playing the titular Dora C.? Pryce, as Lytton Strachey, gave one of the most extraordinary performances on screen I have EVER seen. If you've not seen it, do catch it, please.

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    1. I enjoyed Carrington though it is not an easy film to watch.... as for miss saigon..I too saw Pryce in the Engineer role when it opened....
      lea selonga was lovely as Kim as I recall

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    2. J.G., I've got 'Carrington' on video somewhere. Must admit I haven't watched it for over 10 years. Don't recall it as being a particularly difficult watch but now in light of what you say I must give it another go.

      So you saw Miss Saigon too (at Drury Lane, presumably, rather than in NY). I saw it there twice - the first time was at one of the previews when the 'American Dream' number built up to end in gloriously vulgar razzmatazz. (And, at one point, the stage-lifting contraption jammed so the show had to be stopped till it was rectified!)
      But the second time I saw it, during it's 'proper' run, the 'American Dream' had been toned down. The first version, though enjoyable, did rather over-balance the show - and, from what I recall, it comes at an awkward point in the programme as well.
      And yes, Lea Selonga was pretty well perfect-casting for the 'Madam Butterfly'-type role.

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  3. I can't keep up with you, so many films in such a shortime. I began reading your take on "Hysteria" and you had me with two words: Hugh Dancy. I've been a fan of his since his portrayal of Essex in "Elizabeth 1." Incidentally, his wife won the Emmy last week for her acting in the brilliant, riveting, not-to-be missed "Homeland." And Mr. Dancy will soon be a father. Again, this is a movie that was probably in limited release here and never was shown in my city. But I did catch it this evening on Amazon and I have to tell you this: loved it, loved it, loved it! You wouldn't think the subject matter would be popular, but I did see a play in 2009 called "In The Next Room-The Vibrator Play" about the invention of the vibrator.

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    1. Wonderful that you liked it as much as I did, Paul. I'm asking myself if the play you saw 3 years ago had characters in common with this film. I suppose it must have done.

      You're ahead of me on Mr Dancy. I knew the name, vaguely, but not being a great TV watcher, I wouldn't have known what he looked like until yesterday.
      Never seen 'Homeland' or any of the series like '24', 'Spooks', 'West Wing', 'House' etc etc. They're all on TV around 22.00 hours, long past my bed-time, and the only way I could watch them is on this computer, which is not a comfortable position to hold for long periods. But I'm well aware of the high reputations these shows have.

      Yes, my cinema visits have been untypically frequent recently. Already this year the number has outstripped 2011's total, and there's still 3 months to go. But it's not doing my budgets any good. It's a case of "Enjoy yourself now. Worry about it later."

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  4. I have hope of seeing this one! The local 'art house' theater showed the trailer for it when we went to see "Killer Joe" recently. That must mean it is coming soon.

    "Local" is a relative term in Phoenix, it's a 45 min drive but usually worth it.

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    1. I'll be very surprised indeed if (assuming you can catch it) you're not highly amused, H.K. Do please give us your thoughts in some manner. I await such eagerly.

      Yes, after I commented on 'local' productions I did wonder if what I said was what you'd really meant.
      I was actually harking back to the time when I lived in Oxford when I'd go to the theatre to see just about everything on offer, including student productions - many of which were, frankly, quite 'ropey'. (Though I did see an excellent amateur production of a young cast doing 'Company').

      Btw: I'd also be keen to hear your view of 'Killer Joe'. Did it accord with my own review?

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    2. I liked it very much and thought your review was on-target. I did a post about it on 9/2/12.

      I am definitely a Tracy Letts fan and as long as he continues to write the screen adaptations of his plays I think they will be consistently worth seeing.

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    3. Thanks, H.K. I've now caught up with it.
      Your posting was done before I'd discovered your own blogs - and in searching out this one I couldn't help noticing that you'd also done a recent one on Noel Coward which I'd also missed. If you're interested enough to care to scroll right back to my blog of 8th Feb 2010 I also did one on that unique and extraordinary figure - and I hope with a few words that you'd appreciate.

      I didn't know the name of Tracy Letts, but now that gap in my knowledge has been remedied.....

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    4. Wonderful post about Noel Coward. He always said the most awful things about child performers (funny as hell - but awful)... hard not to recall he was one himself. Thanks for sending the link.

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    5. Thanks, H.K.
      Btw: Isn't it disappointing that the last time Coward appeared on the big screen was in 'The Italian Job'? Now seen as a 'cult' film (maybe justifiably to some extent) the words he is given to speak are so unremarkable and flat. I keep watching him in that film expecting him to come out with some dry witticism which, of course, never materialises. Pity to go out like that. Maybe he needed the dosh.
      And yes, his attitude to children generally was quite atrocious - and very amusing.

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  6. Here's a direct link to my Noel Coward post, H.K.:-

    http://raybeard.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/noel-coward-master.html

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  7. Gosh, so many films in so little time, are you sure you done have rectangular eyes by now!

    It sounds like a great film and certainly worth seeing from your wonderful descriptive review and entertaining too.

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    1. Oh, you'd really like this film, Jase. Guaranteed to lift one out of the dumps if one is there in the first place.

      The films I've been seeing recently are only a part of what I'd been going to if unlimited finance was available.But even with what I can manage it still requires time-consuming examination of web-sites and intricate planning looking for special cheap showings and matinees which accord with free bus-travel and pussy-feeding times. But one has to try one's best to do what one can - (sigh!).

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  8. Every once in awhile, after a 'full day' at the office, I revisit the good ole diagnosis of hysteria as quite apt and alive and well.

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    1. Your words present a bit of a poser to me, Dr Spo. Do you mean to say that after you've had a particularly stressful day a session with a 'v' banishes the blues? Well, I can only applaud your forthrightness, Sir!

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    2. what I meant is 'hysteria' is considered an archaic we don't believe that any more type of diagnosis, but boy oh boy I see cases where it feels spot-on !

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    3. Ah, I see - with apologia for my reading having been so skewed from what you meant.
      In this film 'hysteria' was considered to be a uniquely female 'malaise', I have no doubt now that you mean the old interpretation, if it had any validity at all, ought to have covered both sexes. No need to answer that, for your answer will surely be "Yes!" - yes?

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  9. Oh yes, I see male hysteria nearly every day. Now we call them "drama queens" hohoho

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    1. I should imagine that you'd be ever so grateful for any chance to escape from your world into, say, the world of opera where you can be enthralled with the portrayal of REAL drama queens - with their tantrums all set to gorgeous music. What a difference!

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