Notes on Blindness (2016)

Simply A Masterpiece

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Awesome Movie

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

At the beginning of this film onscreen text informs you that John Hull went blind in the 80s and subsequently kept an audio diary. Those original recordings are now used in the film and the actors lip sync to them... It's a beautiful idea and instantly grabs you in this really personal and at times heartbreaking story. Ultimately though, this is expertly crafted and awe-inspiring. It's a theological study as much as a practical one, but John's resolve really leaves you wondering how you'd cope yourself, if you could be as strong. Going blind is a scary thought, but John Hull proves without doubt it need not be.

(Flash Review)Imagine going blind just before the birth of your first child!? That's a bit of a Debbie Downer. That is what happened to writer and theologian John Hull in 1983. His story is told very uniquely through his diary of tape recordings as he documented his traumatic experience while actors lip synced to the recordings. That creative approach was nicely complimented with cinematography that put the viewer in the atmosphere of blindness as much as one can in a visual medium. Many scenes were awkwardly framed with soft and shifting focus. It often felt like a Mark Rothko painting. Anyway, Mr. Hull recorded a plethora of tapes to capture the feeling of being blind, not from the big obvious points, but by highlighting how blindness effects the little things in life such as smiling and how not being able to see a person smile back at you made him feel like smiling is less enjoyable. Overall, this was a slower paced film that effectively portrayed Mr. Hull coming to terms, find reasons for and solutions to living with his blindness.

The premise behind this is quite intriguing and so going into it I was really curious about how the whole thing would be executed. It's a documentary and drama film at the same time. It reminded me a lot of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. There's something quite lyrical and poetic about the filmmaking. The cinematography needed to really capture the kinds of images that could be going around this man's head and through the recorded audio it is able to effectively capture that. I think a problem I had with the film is that I never fully connected with it. I was only able to admire it from a distance because of that disconnect, and because of that I am able to recommend it and say that it is worth the effort. However, it is unfortunate that I wasn't able to like it more.

Notes on Blindness is an insight into the life of John Hull, an academic who, as he descended into the darkness of total blindness, began to record his thoughts and feelings on the process. These very recordings are lip-synced by the actors and they, along with a unique visual style, attempt to recreate John's perspective on his experience. Obviously this is not a slapstick comedy but the end-product is moving and it's taught me a lot about blindness that I'd never considered. He has a slightly different take on going blind to some others so it's always going to be a personal and subjective viewpoint. Magnificent bit of film-making and the thought that this is the Director's first feature is hard to credit. Give it a best documentary Oscar now.