Vienna, 1777. Maria Theresia (“Resi”) Paradis, 18 years old, is blind, and a pianist of remarkable talent. Resi lost her eyesight literally overnight when she was three. After countless failed medical experiments, her overprotective parents seek out a controversial “miracle doctor,” Franz Anton Mesmer, as their last hope for a cure. For Dr. Mesmer, the chance to successfully treat the young girl could lead to fame and fortune.
Resi moves into the estate of the doctor and his wife, where in the company of other patients she tastes personal freedom for the first time. And Mesmer’s treatments seem to have almost immediate success. However, Resi soon notices that as her sight is beginning to return, her musical virtuosity is declining. She becomes aware that being part of society as a seeing person comes at too high a price if it can mean the loss of her inner world of music.

Direction: Barbara Albert

Script: Kathrin Resetarits

Production: Michael Kitzberger

Co-Production: Martina Haubrich, Wolfgang Widerhofer, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Markus Glaser

Cinematography: Christine A. Maier

Editing: Niki Mossböck

Production Design: Katharina Wöppermann

Costume Design: Veronika Albert

Make-Up: Helene Lang

Sound: Christian Conrad

Original Score: Lorenz Dangel

Visual Effects: Matthias Halibrand

Cast: Maria Dragus, Devid Striesow, Lukas Miko, Katja Kolm, Maresi Riegner, Johanna Orsini-Rosenberg, Stefanie Reinsperger

Original Title: LICHT

Original Languages: French, German

Film Production Countries: Austria, Germany

Website: http://www.licht-paradis-film.com/

Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/Licht.derFilm/

Statement of the Director/s
When I first read about Maria Theresia Paradis, I fell in love immediately. I am fascinated not only by her character—this gifted and sensitive, big, blind, and not too attractive child who is shoved around by her parents and by society—but also by the glimpse her story provides into the bourgeois and aristocratic society of Rococo Vienna. MADEMOISELLE PARADIS tells the tale of a social system based on prohibitions and repression, and of women who try to come to terms with it and find their own space and freedom within its restrictive structures.

Thus, I understand MADEMOISELLE PARADIS not as an escape into the aesthetics of the past, but as a variation on a perpetual and deeply human issue: the constant tension between subordination and adaptation on the one hand, and the determination, on the other hand, to rise above the ordinary.

Beyond that, I want to take the audience on an emotional and sensual journey that challenges the concept of genius in the context of an historical narrative, and that draws our attention to our own often subconscious sensations and their significance in our own lives.

MADEMOISELLE PARADIS is about what and how we see, and about when and whether we should trust what we see.

Biography of the Director/s
Born in Vienna in 1970, Barbara Albert studied directing and screenwriting at the Vienna Film Academy. After having introduced her short films at several festivals, her first feature film NORDRAND was internationally acclaimed after its screening in the competition of Venice Int. Film Festival in 1999.

In the same year Barbara Albert founded the production company coop99, together with Martin Gschlacht, Jessica Hausner and Antonin Svoboda. She worked as producer on GRBAVICA, DARWIN’S NIGHTMARE, SLEEPER and LOVELY RITA. As a writer she has worked together with the writer/ directors Jasmila Zbanic, Andrea Staka, Ruth Mader and Michael Glawogger.

After FREE RADICALS, FALLING and THE DEAD AND THE LIVING, which premiered in the competitions of San Sebastian, Venice and Locarno, MADEMOISELLE PARADIS is Barbara Albert’s 5th feature film. Her films have received numerous awards. She is a teacher and vice president of the Film University Babelsberg “Konrad Wolf” in Potsdam and has been living in Berlin since 2010.

In 2016 she co-founded Berlin-based production company CALA Film, together with the producers of MADEMOISELLE PARADIS, Martina Haubrich and Michael Kitzberger.

Filmography of the Director/s
2017 Licht (Mademoiselle Paradis), 97 min
2012 Die Lebenden (The Dead and the Living), 112 min
2006 Fallen (Falling), 90 min
2004 Mars, 5 min
2003 Böse Zellen (Free Radicals), 120 min
2002 Zur Lage (State of a Nation)
1999 Nordrand, 103 min
1997 Slidin' – Alles bunt und wunderbar ("Tagada"), 30 min
1997 Somewhere else, Dokumentarfilm, 60 min
1996 Sonnenflecken, 25 min
1994 Die Frucht deines Leibes, 27 min

Awards Won
Viennale 1999: Wiener Filmpreis

Preis der Internationalen Fipresci-Jury

Int. Stockholm Film Festival: Best First Feature

Max-Ophüls-Preis Filmfestival Saarbrücken: Förderpreis Langfilm
John Templeton Award 2000

World Sales:
Playtime
François Yon
5 rue Nicolas Flamel
Paris, 75004, France
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +33 1 53 10 33 99
Website: http://playtime.group/

Press:
NGF Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion GmbH
Michael Kitzberger
Hildebrandgasse 26
Vienna, 1180, Austria
E-Mail: [email protected]
Phone: +4369910544914
Website: http://www.geyrhalterfilm.com/