Period dramas and sex prevail for this season’s cinematic release. Tanya Wexler's "Hysteria," one of the films previewing at this year’s Toronto International film festival captures both of those moods with its Victorian-era tale of the men who invented one of the most notorious adult toys, the vibrator. Starring Rupert Everett, Maggie Gyllenhaal (delivering a passable British accent), Hugh Dancy and Jonathan Pryce the story is one of new medical and technological discovery with a bit of women’s emancipation on the side.
The romantic comedy tells the story of the "manipulator" which was invented by Dr. Granville (Hugh Dancy) with the help of friend and scientist (Rupert Everett) as an aid to assist Victorian Doctors with the laborious task of vaginal massage to achieve an "hysterical paroxysm " or orgasm, as we would recognise it as. Thus, a procedure which could take hours and left Physicians suffering from stiff wrists and numb fingers could now be satisfied in minutes. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s plays Charlotte, the smart daughter of Dr. Robert Dalrymple (Jonathan Pryce) who realises the new contraption has the power to let women take their future into their own hands.
Although the film is a whimsical look at the codes and conducts of the Victorian era, it highlights the dramatic way in which the world was changing and adapting to the new ways of thinking about science, psychology and technology. Initially marketed to help alleviate the symptoms of the women’s ailment known as “hysteria” and sold in Sears catalogues, the Vibrator was considered to be more medicinal than pleasurable. Since then sex toys have evolved through years of underground development, sold mainly in salacious and seedy shops, to once again be more part of the mainstream. Celebrities such as Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria and Halle Berry endorsing their preferred vibrator brand. You can now buy them in a multitude of shapes and sizes and there are constantly new designs being released onto the ever growing market.
The public have had their first taste of “Hysteria” at TIFF; I look forward to hearing how it performs at the box office when it hits the Theatres.