Review of Semmelweis

Semmelweis (2023)
6/10
It's the definition of "One time watch"
18 January 2024
Warning: Spoilers
Since I am highly critical about movies, I didn't expect much from a Modern-, Hungarian-made movie in 2023, knowing the current situation given in the Hungarian Film Industry. But let's not get too political, the movie still exceeded my expectations.

The concept of the movie was 'kinda' new for me, although historical movies were made before, they were pretty forgettable, and you wouldn't watch it out of pure curiosity. The storytelling was decent, although it was highly historically inaccurate. Some made-up characters were created to make the story more interesting, but to make Semmelweis's 'wife' a fictional character is terrible. There is no evidence of her being a nurse at the same clinic where Semmelweis had worked at the time. Also, during his time at the Vienna Clinic, the doctors were not divided by nationality, but instead by methodology. Semmelweis and his, mainly younger doctors who represented the newer, more scientific and natural remedies were opposed with the older, more traditional, highly respected doctors, who were also highly viewed by the public, and most patients at the clinic.

The scenes were intense, and a good representation of 19th century Austro-Hungarian regime. The acting was decent, although it wasn't perfect, I'd say it made the movie a star better for me.

Aside from the awful lot of historical inaccuracies, the technicals weren't great either. The camerawork was not on par with the whole story. The cameraman (in my view, and based on other, similar movies) used the wrong angles, multiple times, even a couple times the focus was not even on the. Sound was completely dull, the dialogues were too subtle, some dialogues, that was meant to be important were too weak.

I'd give it a 6, because I gained a bunch of information on Semmelweis's life and his work on medical researches.
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