It appears as though there‘s a big layer of dust in the expansive Rococo costumes and you can almost smell the sweat beneath all the powder, wigs, and clutter. The atmosphere in Barbara Albert‘s film about Franz Anton Messmer‘s treatment of blind musician Maria Theresia Paradis, a contemporary of Mozart, is reminiscent of a closet in a retirement home. Adapted from the novel “Am Anfang war die Nacht Musik“ by Alissa Walser, LICHT is about the preparation of the body and the recognition of mistakes, perception, and art. “Resj,“ which is what Maria Theresia Paradis (Maria Dragus) is called, goes blind as a young child and is passed around as a piano virtuoso by her parents like a circus horse. She is marvelled at as a curiosity in noble Viennese society and never taken seriously as a person. After numerous obscure treatments her hair has fallen out and a itchy skin disease causes her trouble underneath those grotesque wigs. Her parents send her to get treated by Messmer (Devid Stresow), whose treatment method isn‘t recognised by the Viennese faculty. Messmer believes in a magnetic aura that puts the body in relation to earth‘s magnetism and the stars, but his treatment are mostly psychological. He was a pioneer in psychology who – similarly to Freud – required hard “scientific“ theories as proof of his practice. Paradis starts to see again during treatment, but she can‘t identify the objects and her piano playing suffers. Barbara Albert‘s historical costume drama shows how new awareness can come out of nowhere, marked by mistakes, and is affected and hindered by power relations.

Hannes Stein

Translation: Elinor Lewy