| Who knows what secrets lurk in the souls of man? In 18th century Vienna,
one man discovers the truth – and pays the price. His patients call him a miracle
worker; his colleagues dismiss him as a quack. Meet Franz Anton Mesmer (ALAN RICKMAN, Galaxy
Quest, Dogma, Sense and Sensibility): physician, hypnotist,
self-promoter, hopeless romantic, and man ahead of his time. Employing revolutionary
ideas about "animal magnetism" and the power of suggestion, Mesmer gains local
acclaim by curing his disturbed young cousin. Shortly thereafter, beautiful blind pianist
Maria Theresa Paradies (rising French actress AMANDA OOMS, in her first major
English-speaking role) seeks Mesmer’s aid, setting in motion a dizzying, doomed love
affair as her cure becomes both his greatest triumph and his downfall.
In this thought-provoking and relevant film, everything we know – or think we know
– about the nature of consciousness is called into question. As the man who
scandalized Vienna and Paris and threw the medical establishment into an uproar, Alan
Rickman delivers a tour de force performance that won the Best Actor Award at the Montreal
Film Festival.
Starring Alan Rickman (Galaxy Quest, Sense and
Sensibility, Die Hard)
Written by Dennis Potter (Gorky Park, The Singing
Detective)
Music by three-time Golden Globe Nominee Michael Nyman (The
Piano, Gattaca, The End of the Affair)
Directed by Roger Spottiswoode (Tomorrow Never Dies, And
the Band Played On, Under Fire) |