During the 19th century women with a tendency to cause trouble were diagnosed with “Hysteria”. A common treatment was to evoke a hysterical paroxysm—letting a doctor manually simulate the patient’s genitals. Such a doctor is Robert Dalrymple, the foremost specialist in women’s medicine. Dalrymple’s clientele is steadily growing, a surprisingly large number of women apparently suffer from hysteria and —shockingly—they seem to seek treatment for reasons that are not purely medical.
The young doctor Mortimer Granville is kept steadily unemployed by the modern approach to medicine. When doctor Dalrymple hires him, the prude Dr. Granville tries to think of a better way to treat these “sick” women. Maybe with a machine of some kind?
»Hysteria« is a romantic comedy about the man who invented the vibrator. Though set in Victorian London, displaying beautiful dresses and fancy ballrooms, this hysterically funny film is far from your average costume drama.
- Title
- Hysteria
- Director
- Tanya Wexler
- Country
- UK
- Length
- 100 min
- Festival
- 2011
- Section
- Spotlight
- Language
- English
- Premiere status
- Swedish Premiere
- Production year
- 2011
- Cast
- Maggie Gyllenhaal, Felicity Jones, Hugh Dancy
- Producer
- Tracey Becker, Judy Cairo, Sarah Curtis
- Script
- Stephen Dyer, Howard Gensler, Jonah Lisa Dyer
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