Event

Frontier's Best of 2012 Series: Hysteria

Directed by Tanya Wexler
Starring Hugh Dancy, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jonathan Pryce, Felicity Jones and Rupert Everett
English
1 hr 35 mins, rated R

Official Selection
Toronto International Film Festival 2011
Tribeca Film Festival 2012

Hysteria is a lighthearted romantic comedy that tells the surprising story of the birth of the electro-mechanical vibrator at the very peak of Victorian prudishness. Mortimer Granville, a struggling yet dedicated young doctor, is hired by Dr. Robert Dalrymple, London's leading specialist in women's medicine. His waiting room is overflowing with well-dressed women suffering afflictions of the female nervous system known as "hysteria." Granville's improved lot in life makes him a worthy suitor for Dalrymple's daughter Emily (Felicity Jones, Like Crazy), but he finds himself unable to perform his duties satisfactorily. Seeking refuge with his lifelong friend, the eccentric Edmund St. John Smythe, whose passion is newfangled technology, Granville is struck by how pleasurable the vibrating sensation of Smythe's invention, an electric feather-duster, feels in his hand. A brilliant idea takes hold, and Granville and Smythe convince Dalrymple to try out the innovation on his patients, with spectacular results. More than a playful comic romp, Hysteria is a feisty love story and a trip into hidden history, an exploration of women's passion and a celebration of the forward-thinking spirit that has always kept human progress buzzing.