The Hypnotist/Hypnotisören (2012) - Hallström returns to the fatherland with thriller turkey

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Uncomfortably staring stars with bluish faces make up this poster for Lasse Hallström's The Hypnotist

A basketball trainer and an entire family have been stabbed to death: Only a big lad survives - but in a coma - and a hypnotist attempts to get answers from him.

 

The Hypnotist is written by Paolo Vacirca (Feed (2022)), with co-writer/director Lasse Hallström (En Kille och en Tjej (1975)) contributing story elements, adapted from Lars Kepler's (Stalker (2014)) same-titled 2009 novel.

Completely incompetent as a thriller, The Hypnotist is an assembly line 'Nordic noir' that also rests on a very dubious story. As seen before the Swedish setting has been robbed of almost all color and humor, and instead Mikael Persbrandt (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)) here walks around and looks like a middle-age crisis-hit man with a bad case of hangover, who hypnotizes people. Lena Olin (Vinyl (2016, TV-series)) plays one of the film's snapping, commanding, sour females.

Violent but unexciting, the film has desperately dull relationship scenes, crisis of confidence scenes, crying children and general discouragement, darkness and ugly settings. Suddenly near the end a more dramatic action suspense is erected out on the ice (literally) but it is hopeless. The Hypnotist is a toothache-reminiscent torment of a film.

 

Related post:
 

Lasse Hallström: Chocolat (2000) - Delicious pairing in spite of Hallström's ghastly taste

 

Here is a video from a press conference for the film

 

Cost: 61 mil. SEK, approximately 5.91 mil. $

Box office: 7.1 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.20 times its cost)

[The Hypnotist was released 28 September (Sweden) and runs 122 minutes. Shooting took place from January - March 2012 in Sweden, including in Stockholm, and in Prague, Czech Republic. The film opened #1 to a 974k $ first weekend in Sweden, where it remained for another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#3), grossing 3.8 mil. $ (53.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Denmark with 916k $ (12.9 %) and Spain with 646k $ (9.1 %). The film was only shown at a couple of film festivals in North America. It was chosen as Sweden's Oscar entry of the year but went without nomination. Hallström returned with Safe Haven (2013). Persbrandt returned in Mig Äger Ingen (2013); Tobias Zilliacus (Beck (2018, TV-series)) in 7 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return in Onnelin ja Annelin talvi (2015); and Olin in Night Train to Lisbon (2013). 8.4k+ IMDb users have given The Hypnotist a 5.6/10 average rating.]

 

What do you think of The Hypnotist? 

Heart of Glass/Herz aus Glas (1976) - Industrialized apathy explored in Herzog's odd art drama

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A somber and introspective, water-painted poster for Werner Herzog's Heart of Glass

We are introduced to a German village in the 18th century, where fanciful theories of blowing glass - the local industry - and the ruby glass created there dictate the odd inhabitants' doings.

Heart of Glass is written by Herbert Achternbusch (Der Neger Erwin (1981)) and co-writer/producer/director, great German filmmaker Werner Herzog (Signs of Life/Lebenszeichen (1968)). The original title is directly translated as the English title.

It is an inordinately bizarre film. The content of the story is strange in itself, but the acting performances, all (except for the factory workers and the character Hias) achieved under hypnosis are particularly unique and weird in a trance-like, out-of-the-body way. This also brings some fun to the film, which is otherwise a dreary affair, despite its high strangeness quality, bereft of an actual plot. 

The nonsense-poetical lines coming out of the hypnotized actors seem suspect as the works of a drug-affected filmmaker, - but I have no proof of course. Heart of Glass is not a good film, but it must rank among the strangest of all time. Featuring a beautiful and thrilling sequence of glassblowing.

 

Related posts:

Werner Herzog: Jack Reacher (2012) - Highly entertaining, dark hero-vehicle for Tom Cruise (supporting actor) 
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010) - Herzog and Vasyukov invite us to meet a remote, tough Siberian people 

My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009) - Herzog and Shannon take us down the rabbit-hole 
The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans/Bad Lieutenant (2009) or, Werner Herzog's Bad Lieutenant
Cobra Verde/Slave Coast (1987) - Herzog and Kinski's final work delves into the madness of slavery   

Fitzcarraldo (1982) - Herzog's mad Amazonian opera monument 
Even Dwarfs Started Small/Auch Zwerge Haben Klein Angefangen (1970) - Herzog teases us to react with uniquely odd experimental drama 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: Unknown

Box office: Unknown

= Uncertain

[Heart of Glass premiered 13 November (Paris Film Festival) and runs 94 minutes. Shooting took place in Switzerland, Ireland, Germany and in Wyoming, Alaska, New York and Utah. The film had a fairly small release in a handful of countries, and cost and gross details are regrettably not available online. It won a German Film award. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 4 notches over this one. Herzog returned with Mit Mir Will Niemand Spielen (1976, short) and theatrically with Stroszek (1977). Heart of Glass is fresh at 92 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Heart of Glass?

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001) - Allen's hypnotic, noirish shenanigans

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The retro-cool poster for Woody Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

QUICK REVIEW:

Insurance detective C. W. Briggs feels terrorized by his office's efficiency expert, who also happens to be the director's mistress. Their hate-love-relationship develops, when a hypnotist uses them both to conduct his crimes.

Scorpion has attractive photography by Chinese cinematographer Fei Zhao (Sweet and Lowdown (1999)) and lots of witty dialog from master writer-director Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose (1984)), although they aren't from his top shelf; yet they still thoroughly amuse.
They figure in a seductive, original crime plot, which recalls noir classics such as Howard Hawks' The Big Sleep (1946). - In particular Charlize Theron's (In the Valley of Elah (2007)) femme fatale character is reminiscent of Lauren Bacall in that masterful film.
The Curse of the Jade Scorpion was not a happy movie to make, because the period sets were so expensive that there was hardly any time for re-shooting, and because Allen found that he shouldn't have taken the lead part himself. Perhaps the resulting stress is why he doesn't even seem to have changed into period glasses for the film. He has self-consciously remarked that it is perhaps his worst film, (which it isn't by a long-shot. In my opinion that would be To Rome With Love (2012)).

Related reviews:

The Big Sleep (1946) - The sexiest noir carousel you will ever ride  
Woody Allen:  2014 in films - according to Film Excess
Magic in the Moonlight (2014) - Allen's irresistible French Riviera romance
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Fading Gigolo (2013) - Turturro's pleasant turn as a high-end NY prostitute  (as actor)
Blue Jasmine (2013) - Allen presenets Blanchett, a woman under the influence
To Rome with Love (2012) - Woody Allen's slightest film to date   
Cassandra's Dream (2007) - Allen's well-laid but inconsequentiel English cul-de-sac  
Anything Else (2003) - Perfect contemporary relationship comedy   
Celebrity (1998) or, Beautiful Celebrities Talk About Sex (guest review) 
Broadyway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart   
Annie Hall (1977) or, My Relationship with Alvie Singer   
Bananas (1971) - Woody Allen's South American misadventure is still a barrel of laughs   
Casino Royale (1967) - The packed spy spoof frontrunner, a film very much of its time (as actor)

Woody Allen, David Ogden Stiers and Helen Hunt in Allen's The Curse of the Jade Scorpion

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 33 mil. $
Box office: 18.9 mil. $
= Big flop
[The film disappointed in the US with a scant 7.4 mil. $ gross. Though Rotten Tomatoes measures a measly 5.2 critical average for the film, general audiences (and Film Excess) are more enthusiastic; it has 6.8 at IMDb. Roger Ebert reevaluated the film and said, "No noir films were shot in color in the 1940s, but if one had been, it would have looked like this."]

What do you think of The Curse of the Jade Scorpion?