The Cinematheque

Austria

This sumptuous, sensuous historical drama from acclaimed Austrian filmmaker Barbara Albert (Northern Skirts, Free Radicals) tells the extraordinary story of an unusual musical prodigy in late-18th-century Vienna. Maria Theresia von Paradis, a gifted young harpsichordist, is gaining notice in high-society music circles, but is also something of a curiosity—as a female artist and as a blind person. Her arriviste parents, seeking a cure for her disability, place Maria in the dubious care of the dandyish Dr. Franz Mesmer—whose unorthodox theories and methods would give us the word ​“mesmerize.” Albert’s intelligent, ironic, fact-based film uses the era’s cruel sexual and social-class politics, and the eternal conflict between art and science, to dramatize Maria’s plight. Romanian actress Maria Dragus (Mungiu’s Graduation, Haneke’s The White Ribbon) is exquisite in the lead.