A drug-addicted doctor with writer's block takes inspiration (among other things) from a beautiful female patient in this harrowing, Norwegian-made drama set in the years immediately preceding World War I. At a remote institution for disturbed women—some of them “cured” by primitive, painful lobotomies—decadent Dr. Josef Brenner (Ulrich Thomsen), a wannabe writer and morphine addict, pretends to take drugs as an aid for psychoanalytic research. Although Brenner is distrusted by clinic director Moravcsik (Zsolt Laszlo), an old-school medico whose methods call for grisly operations, Brenner proceeds with his risky experiments anyway. When paranoid patient Gizella Klein (Kirsti Stubo), a prolific diarist convinced that Satan takes a personal interest in her, inspires Brenner first with her writing and then with her sexuality, the resulting act of passion has unforeseen consequences for both. Stubo's fearless performance crackles with intensity, while Thomsen, in the more restrained role, convincingly portrays Brenner as an immoral, cold-eyed opportunist whose very appearance raises hackles. Shot in northern Hungarian locations, including a monastery used during World War II as a prison for Jews, director Janos Szasz's Opium is a psychological horror film that gets under the viewer's skin. Recommended. (E. Hulse)
Opium: Diary of a Madwoman
Koch Lorber, 109 min., in Hungarian w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $26.98 Volume 24, Issue 1
Opium: Diary of a Madwoman
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