Hysteria

Hysteria (2011)

Hysteria is a movie about the invention of..ahem ahem ..the Vibrator. That’s a very bold topic to make a period movie on, but you can’t change the facts. The movie is directed by Tanya Wexler and stars Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett and Felicity Jones, among others.

Hugh Dancy as Mortimer Granville,
Hysteria

Maggie Gyllenhaal as
Charlotte Dalrymple,
Hysteria

So, this movie is about a young doctor, Mortimer Granville who is qualified and sympathetic to his patients yet not able to carve a niche for him. Mortimer (played by Hugh Dancy) lives with Edmund St. John-Smythe (played by Rupert Everett) as latter’s family support for him. Edmund is shown to be an inventor of some sorts, playing with gadgets and electricity generators.

The movie starts with ladies telling about their “problems” to Doctor Dalrymple, which he defines as HYSTERIA. Dr. Dalrymple (played by Jonathan Pryce) runs an elite clinic which deals with the ladies problems. What exactly he does to cure his patients, he gives them some “pelvic massage” (which until recently I didn’t know is suppose to be a doctor’s job). He is successful and is the father of two daughters, Charlotte Dalrymple (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and Emily Dalrymple (Felicity Jones). While Charlotte is outgoing and all about the reform in women’s life, Emily is everything a good, decent and intelligent British girl ought to be.

Felicity Jones as Emily Dalrymple and Jonathan Pryce as Dr. Dalrymple,
Hysteria

Young Dr. Mortimer is out work, despite of trying at a number of clinics so one day he goes to Dr. Dalrymple’s clinic to work as an assistant. He soon masters the art of “pelvic massage” and clients start to pour in at the clinic. While things are going well at Dr. Dalrymple’s, his elder daughter, Charlotte is fighting for feminine causes and resettlement, and turns short of money. Dr. Dalrymple is shown to be quite against her inferior activities, on the other hand, he thinks very well of his younger daughter, Emily, even Mortimer starts paying a great deal of attention to her.

Busy schedules and burst of clients leaves Mortimer with a stiff hand and as a consequence, clients aren’t satisfied anymore. Dalrymple throws him out on account of an unsatisfied client and now again, Mortimer gets out of work.  Then what happens is the main plot of the movie and I am not going to spoil it for you. Though there are some things I would pen down here.

Rupert Everett as
Edmund St. John-Smythe,
Hysteria

Hysteria works well as a comedy, it’s not too loud, though exaggerated at some places. The opening scene itself sets the tone of the coming one and a half hour of comedy and the theme of the movie. About casting I would like to express my express disappointment, Maggie Gyllenhaal as Charlotte Dalrymple, not happening! She might as well have been Mrs. Dalrymple, I mean, look at her, no offence but she looks really mature and far too old to act as Hugh Dancy’s love interest. On the other hand, Felicity Jones, who looks like she isn’t going to shed her baby suit for years to come, looks like her daughter, not sister.  Hugh Dancy has done a good work, helpless and kind doctor, who finally falls for aunt Charlotte Dalrymple. Also, Maggie Gyllenhaal just, sort of spoils the whole period movie grace of the movie; you can be a social worker without being barbaric. Felicity Jones, didn’t have much to do or act, still she was nice in her tamed role.

Sheridan Smith as Molly the 'Lolly',
Hysteria

Molly the Lolly, was funny and has done her part well but then you have Mrs. Castellari, simply over acted the whole thing, and it was not funny. Another thing, I couldn’t understand why did the threesome, Mortimer, Dalrymple and Edmund put on their goggles before treating Mrs. Castellari with the thing, as if something was about to get spilled.

The movie has more highs than lows and can make a good watch for you and you won’t need to carry your brain. 

The Diary of Anne Frank (2009) : Reviewed

The following article was first published on MadAboutMoviez

The Diary of Anne Frank (2009)

The Diary of Anne Frank (2009) is most probably the tenth or twelfth screen adaptation of the famous book The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank and one with the most genuine screenplay, I think. It’s a five-part BBC TV series based on the two years during which Anne Frank along with seven others lived in a “Secret Annexe” in Amsterdam.

The series has been directed by Jon Jones and the screenplay is by Deborah Moggach. Ellie Kendrick plays Anne Frank, Iain Glen as Otto Frank, Tamsin Greig as Edith Frank and Felicity Jones as Margot Frank, play the Frank family of four; Kate Ashfield as Miep Gies, among others.

Anne Frank is one of the most famous victims of the Holocaust (World War II) and what makes her famous is, of course, her diary. The story follows the events that took place during Germany’s Holland occupation, deporting the Jews to concentration camps.

The first of the five episodes shows Anne’s life at her comfortable home in Amsterdam. Her father owned a business and she lived with her parents and sixteen year old elder sister, Anne was thirteen years old herself. This was in 1941, the Germans had already begun to sweep off Jews from Holland and that is why her father planned that he, along with the rest of the family, would go into hiding until the war was over. The hiding place was, her father, Otto Frank’s old office building’s attic room.

Otto Frank was supported by his office staff Miep Gies, Mr. Kugler, Mr. Koophius and Elli. Miep was responsible for bringing in the food and other daily supplies. Later on, in the same month another family joined them, the Van Daans, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan and their fifteen year old son Peter. Mr. Van Daan was Otto Frank’s colleague. After sometime, another member joined them, a dentist, Mr. Dussel, who was to share Anne’s room.

The first thing that you’ll notice about this TV series is that it is original, sincere and you sort of, get in touch with characters instantly. I must also comment upon the art direction since it is very nicely done. Ellie Kendrick plays a very convincing Anne Frank, which comes surprisingly since she hasn’t had any major roles before this one.

There’s nothing in the storyline which comes as suspense, we know the story already, and it is the emotion that makes you watch this series. It is a sad story of a thirteen year old girl, stuck in a building, not in touch with the outside world. It is about her feelings, her transformation from a child to a mature teenager and the hopelessness that the war wouldn’t end. 

The series proceeds with the day to day life and its tension in the “Secret Annexe” between the two families, the fear on learning that more and more Jews are being taken to the concentration camps and horror that they might be discovered any day. To the members of the “Secret Annexe”, each day came with the fright that they might be discovered by the Germans and yet there were other silly worries with living without any privacy, so close together, all of which made life very irritable and hopeless altogether.

All the characters have been played to best, and I can tell this since I have read the book already. Father, Otto Frank is brave and organised and tactful; mother, Edith Frank is sensitive, reserved and loving; Margot Frank is very quiet, intelligent and a peacemaker; Anne is smart, intelligent and talkative and she has another side to her character which she is afraid to show. Then comes the Van Daan household, Mr. Van Daan is forever craving for cigarettes and is angry most of the times; Mrs. Van Daan is pompous, scared and stupid; Peter Van Daan is quiet, shy and thinks that he’s good at nothing and finally, Mr. Dussel is quiet, private and sometimes impossible.

The member of the “Secret Annexe” hid in there for about twenty five months during which they were cut from the outside world completely. At some points of time they felt desperate and miserable and at other times they thanked God for saving them from the wrath of the Germans for this long. Its beautiful how Anne Frank has captured the big and the small things in her diary, from her perspective, sometimes it is so deep and mature that you won’t believe that it is written by a thirteen year old girl. The screenplay is very subtle, no exaggerations at all and yet it is extremely moving.

Ellie Kendrick as Anne Frank

The last scene of the series will surely give you creeps and you’ll end up in tears, that, if you have closely followed the previous episodes. There is no brutality in the series, its all about emotions and they are quite more than enough to make you cry. I remember, I had goose bumps as I watched the climax of the series and by the end I was in tears, not able to get the last shot out of my mind.

Anne always wanted to be a writer when she was “old enough” and to “to live even after her death” and both her wishes got fulfilled but she was no longer present to witness them.

I strongly recommend this series, to all ages. It is definitely one of my favourites and I think you’ll like it too. It will make you think about yourself, your thoughts when you were thirteen years old and how fortunate we are today.

There’s quotation I would like to share, “War has its own way of differentiating between the things that matter and the things that don’t.”, it certainly does!

--Pallavi