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Charlatan, fraud...or genius? To some he was a wizard, a miracle man; to others he was a charlatan and a fraud. His theories of hypnotism were revolutionary, but he was reviled by his contemporaries and exiled from his native Vienna. He became the toast of Paris, a visionary, a Svengali--and the disgrace of the medical profession. He was Franz Anton Mesmer and this was eighteenth century Vienna. Written by Dennis Potter (Pennies from Heaven). From the Back Cover ------------------- 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 accl by curing his disturbed young cousin. Shortly thereafter, beautiful blind pianist Maria Theresa Paradies (Amanda Ooms) 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 film from accled screenwriter Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective) and director Roger Spottiswoode (Tomorrow Never Dies), 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. Music composed by three-time Golden Globe Nominee Michael Nyman (The Piano, Gattaca, The End of the Affair).