Synopsis
Charlatan, Fraud... or Genius
A biography of the eighteenth century Viennese physician, Franz Anton Mesmer, who used unorthodox healing practices based on his theory of "animal magnetism."
Mesmer
1994 Directed by Roger Spottiswoode
Cast
Alan Rickman Amanda Ooms Simon McBurney David Hemblen Anna Thalbach Donal Donnelly Gillian Barge David Burke Beatie Edney Peter Dvorsky István Szilágyi János Gosztonyi Heinz Trixner Petra Köberl Peter Janisch Caroline Holdaway Jan Rubeš Martin Schwab Dorothea Parton Bence Kertész Herbert Prikopa Joerg Biester Serge Ridoux Shirley Douglas Mareile Geisler Balázs Galkó Antal Leisen Tamás Dunai Zoltán Gera Show All…
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Theatrical
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USA
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USA
25 Aug 1994
- Theatrical
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Action! - The March of the (3) Rogers: Stop Or Buddy Spottiswoode Will Shoot
Spottiswoode chooses to branch out as a director and venture into the biopic field. His first effort is a biography about Franz Anton Mesmer, a little-known but very controversial man who is often regarded as the father of modern hypnosis. In a nutshell, he believed in a "celestial gravity" with an ethereal fluid in the body whose fluctuation would upset the soul and induce mental problems. Mozart, the music legend, was perhaps his most ardent and famous follower of this trend. Indeed, as far as I can tell, the term "mesmerize" is derived from him, but I assume it is not commonly used in the same…
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I had hoped that this whole "watch something when someone you adore dies" method of picking my evening's viewing would be an occasional thing. Here I am, though, for the second time in one week, watching something because a wonderful, talented, sexy, charming, decent-spirited man died at the age of 69 from cancer.
Fuck this disease.
I was surprised I hadn't heard of Mesmer before. The combination of Alan Rickman with Fortean subject matter and - yeah! - a Dennis Potter script seemed like catnip for me. There are several reasons why it doesn't quite work, though Rickman, at least, is blameless.
Franz Anton Mesmer is today remembered as the inspiration for the word "mesmerize", though he was far more…
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El apartado visual es un deleite con ese acabado estilizado que rememora a una obra pictórica. Éste constituye, a mi entender, la segunda cualidad esencial de un film que narrativamente es tradicional y no ofrece demasiado pero que se sustenta en su totalidad por lo atractiva que resulta la performance de Alan Rickman en su dominio, entrega, pasión y frustración. (Además de lo lindo que está porque QUÉ HOMBRE).
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It's hard to believe Alan Rickman has died. After all, I only watched him on Friday evening in A Little Chaos, and - with Bowie's death on Monday - it's unthinkable that we should suffer two devastating losses in just one week.
To mark his passing I decided to rewatch Mesmer, a film I have always had a soft spot for despite being a deeply flawed piece. Many have pointed out that Rickman - who won the best actor award at the Montreal Film Festival for his performance here - is the only good thing in the film but, whilst it is true he is on fine form here, to say so would be a disservice to others such as…
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I watched a caption-less, low-res version of this film on YT, just for the love of Alan Rickman. His performance is alluring and indeed captivating but so many factors make this utterly cringe and nonsensical to the point of being weird, which I otherwise very much like, but a not-exactly-good weird.
However, it’s worth watching for a somewhat historically accurate biography about the mesmerising “father of modern hypnosis” played by our most beloved actor.
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I miss Alan Rickman. Also interesting representation of Mesmer and expression in the banquet scene... (I was also in a play about Mesmer and Marie-Therese)