ABOUT A FILM: Hysteria

'The thing I was most concerned about is that it would sound too porn-y," says film director Tanya Wexler about her latest film.

This is presumably a worry when you have a cast of largely middle-aged English stage actresses faking orgasms on screen.

"We did some orgasm rehearsals," Wexler says.

"I thought if it sounded like a porn film then it wouldn't be funny, but if it sounded like a comedy then it wasn't going to be believable."

Her film, Hysteria, needed to be believable because the true story on which it is based - about the invention of the world's first electric vibrator in Victorian London - sounds quite far-fetched.

Hugh Dancy stars, opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal, as the ambitious young doctor, Mortimer Granville, whose job is to treat women who suffer from a disorder of the uterus known as hysteria - a catch-all diagnosis for women who were suffering from anything ranging from a headache to depression to disobedience. The diagnosis was only dropped in the 1950s.

Luckily for Victorian women, all these symptoms could be treated by relieving tensions within the womb using "digital manipulation" - a time-consuming and laborious job for doctors. When he gets the job, Granville's boss tells him, with a deadly serious expression, that "an extra pair of hands" would be useful.

"It was nothing to be embarrassed by because they didn't think it was sexual," Wexler says.

"These women thought they were just getting physio. But, my God, if that's what they were offering, wouldn't we all go to the doctors a lot more?"

But after spraining his hand from treating one too many happy customers, Granville gets sacked. This is when he comes up with the idea of an electronic massager - the Jolly Molly - and goes on to make his fame and fortune.

To get his patients cast in the mood, Wexler gave them all a little vibrator on their first day, presented in a velvet pouch.

"They were multicoloured and I guess sort of looked like a lipstick," Wexler says.

Wexler and producer Tracey Becker had trouble securing financing for the movie for four years - "The whole movie business is set up to say no to anything and this did sound like a bit of a risk," she says - but eventually got the funds they needed. The entire movie was shot in 33 days.

She cast Dancy, whom she describes as "a crazy, brilliant comedic actor" and Gyllenhaal, who plays Charlotte, Granville's love interest.

But despite making "sexually out there" films such as Secretary, where she gets involved in a sadomasochistic relationship, Gyllenhaal has said she gets "flushed and funny every time I talk about the movie".

"It just goes to show that we still don't really know how to speak openly about women's sexuality," Gyllenhaal said.

"I think this movie will get people talking a bit more, though, because it takes such a fun and humorous approach."

Wexler has no such embarrassment.

"What's the overall message of the film?" she muses. "Keep fresh batteries with you." - ©The Daily Telegraph

• 'Hysteria' opens at cinemas today

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