Semmelweis (2023) User Reviews

Enjoyable, but too much fiction.

[muvyfoto · 7/10 · 6 April 2024]

Semmelweis was indeed a admirable historical figure, but the movie has added too much romanticized fantasy to the story up to the point where some people would shout "historical inauthenticity".

I understand the need to dramatise the story for the moviegoer audience, but some casting accuracies and factual authenticity wouldn't have hurt the overall enjoyability of the film, but at the same time the struggle of that particular era was really palpable.

In general it was a movie to be seen once, but it won't become a cinema classic, but compromises between drama, authenticity and production budget led to this outcome. You should watch it at least once, to see why science is held back by authority.

It's the definition of "One time watch"

[qqdkvy · 6/10 · 18 January 2024]

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.

Good, but far from perfect.

[matepolcz · 8/10 · 13 February 2024]

This film tells a beautiful story with using a few clichés that make this movie only good. It's the kind of film you have probably watched several times, but I think it's worth watching, because few movies give you the joy this one has. The acting performances are great except for the little daughter. I could not understand half of what she said. It's well-shot, well-edited, the production and costume design is amazing. Lajos Koltai proves that he is a good director, but this film is kind of monotonous, slow. It can be boring ometimes and it's very predictable. Overall the film is good, but it could've been a lot better.

Excellent film

[mszbmikes · 10/10 · 24 January 2024]

My students and I watched this movie today. They liked it a lot, and we talked about it for a long time afterwards, it seemed that it piqued their interest. The story is exciting, sometimes too much so naturalistic. Struggle and tragedies accompanied the film, presenting the XIX. Health condition of the century. I didn't know many of the actors, but they all gave excellent performances. The young actor who played Semmelweis, Vecsey H. Miklós, created a convincing, real doctor character. Lajos Koltay's excellent direction also contributed to the experience. The creators can be rightfully proud. I hope the film gets international recognition.

Best foreign film for the Oscars

[tessatc · 10/10 · 22 February 2024]

The story line is close to what happened in real life. Missing the coroner from the real life story though. Excellent actors and hope Koltai will win an Oscar with this film.

Semmelweis' story shows that simple being curious, observational and logical can result in life-changing discoveries. The film also shows how some peoples believe they are above others, and the not so straightforward Austrian-Hungarian relationship. A worthwhile film to watch.

Let's hope this Hungarian film about the savior of all mothers and hospital patients will be recognized and enjoyed by the international audience. 👍

Hungarian Hero

[bbrzjpgh · 10/10 · 3 April 2024]

The unbreakable element makes a person great, a touching true story based on reality, the image and reality are fascinating. In Hungary today, Semmelweis is a real historical person, I think he portrayed a big problem of the time very well. Check out! In this story, the person is very sympathetic, because if he has a family, he thinks about the big problems and questions of the past, which he could have fixed in a short time with today's knowledge. Great knowledge and thinking can fix these problems, and fortunately it was once again a Hungarian person who was able to fix this, despite the many enemies and skepticism, things were fixed even at that time!

A crappy fairytale about a real-life hero

[drummerlaci · 5/10 · 28 December 2023]

I'm quite disappointed to be honest. The technical side of the movie is totally ok. A little bit claustrophobic for me as basically there are no open spaces in the movie but still technically the film is ok.

The real downside is the storyline itself. Basically nothing was as it's in the movie. The whole austrian-hungarian rivalry is a lie. Klein did not even exist. As such the whole laundry scandal is made up too. Emma is fictional too just as the espionage line. The autopsy of Kolletschka wasn't preformed by Semmelweis as he wasn't even in the country at the time of Kolletschka's death. Semmelweis only studied the notes of the autopsy. As such it couldn't not be a scandal.

If you watch the movie you just see a brainless propaganda movie. It's an absolute disgrace that wants you to think that mean austrians mistreated a hungarian genius just because his nationality. It's not better than those stupid soviet heroic movies.

Too bad that the filmmakers made a cheap and dumb propaganda movie instead of a historically accurate objective adaptation. Semmelweis should deserve more than that.

Kidobott pénzek egy újabb filmre

[nkbxwxhcs · 5/10 · 13 April 2024]

It's not the first time that more money is poured into a film, whose end result is far from good.

I recognized actors in it who generally perform very well, but here it somehow didn't come across. Summing up the acting, I'd give it a 10/2. They couldn't make me feel their situation; at times, the monologues seemed as if they were pondering what their next line should be.

I find the two-hour runtime of this film unnecessary. Often, less is more; here, many parts of the film became boring, lacking sufficient plot.

The costumes, backgrounds, and the overall visual appearance were fine; it's a shame that they adapted this outstanding story so poorly.

Missed opportunity, 4,5

[dudasadam-51051 · 5/10 · 30 November 2023]

I think the life of Semmelweis has much greater potential that this movie displayed. It only focuses on the most recognized discovery of his. Too bad that it was not recognized in his lifetime, while the movie actually displayes it so.

Technicals were basic, sounds were raw and unpleasant in the first half. Costumes were ok. The fact that the movie had medical nonsense in it is disappointing as well. Just to mention two of them: Semmelweis asks the nurse to check for dilation when the lady is clearly in active labor. They mixed sedative in the wine. Problem is that sedatives were not invented yet. And they know that, because they mention ether several times in the movie.

Katica and Miklós did a great job in the movie. Actually Katica's acting was very good, and Miklós did well despite I know him from theater. One small thing which was unfortunate in my opinion is giving the script about traitor and fighting a war in Miklós's play. It resembles his character of Nemecsek and awakens the memory in the viewer as well.

I'm disappointed that they missed this opportunity, but found the movie otherwise alright, and I'm thankful for the actors for getting the best out of this script.

Embarrassingly mediocre

[ar_sa_1983 · 3/10 · 9 March 2024]

The only reason I give 3 stars is the cinematography. Which is itself completely all right. But other than that, I would be in real trouble if I had to point out some notable/positive features of the movie. As someone mentioned before, the real downside is the storyline itself. It could have been improved, once they decided to go with fiction instead of sticking with the actual history. I would prefer a more realistic approach any day but this kind of thing can still be legitimate for some people.

The characters were mediocre, it is hard to say anything beyond that. The sophisticated presentation of the characters would have required thoughtful acting, but this was lacking here. There was much more to be made of this topic. This is a one-time watch movie, but only if you really don't have anything better to do.

this movie contains both X and a parody of X !

[efuput · 4 December 2023]

I just saw the movie in a Budapest arts cinema. I agree with the previous commentator - the movie was a missed opportunity.

The audience (including me) found some of the dialogs ridiculous - and there was occasional laughter during this serious movie.

The problem is that the nationalistic Orban regime financed the movie, so they tried to suggest that Semmelweisz's 1847 idea (that doctors should wash their hands in chlorinated lime in order not to infect women giving birth with cadaver "particles") was rejected in Vienna because he was "Hungarian".

In reality, it was a Hungarian doctor who sent him to mental asylum in 1865, where he was beaten to death,

Terrible

[qwgmfjvh · 1/10 · 24 January 2024]

This movie was literally terrible. The actors cant act well, it was only in hungarian with no english subtitles so i couldnt understand half of what they were speaking. The fact that they spent 5 million dollars to make this movie is literally makes me want to kill myself. It was really boring, no actual story just something to keep the viewers up and not sleep (they failed with that). I slept 1 hours and 16 minutes during a 2 hour 6 minute movie, I had to watch it again at home so i could write this review. Only good thing to say about this is the cinematography, the visuals were okay, didn't hated them honestly, but still, this movie was really boring and I shouldn't have went to watch it in the first place.

Disaster

[bardoczagnes · 1/10 · 10 April 2024]

I've seen this guy in theater and he was ok but in this movie it's like no words can describe... It's more like a disaster. Everyone else is playing good enough except the main character. I love Gálfi and he's the very best of this movie but still he cannot save it from being annoying. I'm very sorry that all this talent and money were wasted on a movie like this. Semmelweis in real life had nothing to do with the role described and the guy acting in this movie... The costumes, the filming and also the music are really good but I think these are the only strengths of the movie.

I wish this money was be spent on independent movies like Six weeks or 27 (short) or White plastic sky instead of this disaster...