Notes on Blindness (2016) User Reviews

Interesting way of blending truth and "fiction"

[peefyn · 6/10 · 8 October 2016]

I love the concept behind these. Using actual tapes, editing them together in a way to present them as a narrative, and then creating the visuals to match it. The fact that it is a story about a man who no longer can see, adds to it. It's an interesting way to mix truth and fiction, because the story and dialogue is all real, and could have been presented as a documentary of sorts. But by editing them, adding the environmental sounds, and getting actors to "play it out", it blurs the line in a really interesting way. That, in addition to some of the insights into how it is to become blind, are the clear highlights of the movie. Sadly, it does not have much more to offer that's very interesting.

In a way, ironically, I think this story would work better as just the audio. The editing done was brilliant, and combine with the atmospheric sounds added, I think it could have been a really good radio story. With an added level that a story about blindness would have no visuals.

Going blind is a scary thought, but John Hull proves without doubt it need not be.

[garethcrook · 7/10 · 18 May 2018]

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.

An Artist & Poetic Perspective On Blindness

[iquine · 8/10 · 1 November 2017]

(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.

Visually Impressive

[Red_Identity · 13 January 2017]

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.

Unique documentary

[saraccan · 7/10 · 20 December 2018]

This documentary/drama has a very unique style that I haven't seen before. They used the original voice recordings of these documented people and had the actors act and lip-sync to the recordings which must've been an interesting challenge. It has very nice cinematography, soundtrack and sound design.

I was particularly interested in this documentary as I recently met 2 incredible blind musicians and was curious to learn more about blindness. However this is not really a documentary about blindness but more about how this guy personally reacts to his situation. There were some very captivating moments though.

A theology academic named John Hull goes blind due to an illness and has to learn how to adapt to his new life.

Words will not do justice

[manuelortega-57740 · 10/10 · 18 February 2017]

I want to shower praise on the director, actors and everyone involved in this film. But this magnificent meditation exceeds the sum of its parts. If you tackle your life head on. If you question the relationship between your senses and your awareness and, indeed, what that might imply about what you are. If you appreciate the right amount of silence, and delicate, subtle cinematography. If you are moved by music that infuses the narrative with a thoughtful atmosphere. If you respect originality of technique in an industry that is struggling with habit. If all of these and then that ineffable magic of something greater, then please, experience this.

Hide and see(k)

[EdoSchipper · 10/10 · 28 February 2018]

This is such an amazing piece of work; put in the shoes of someone who loses his sight, halfway through his lifetime, which is one of my personal worst nightmares, I was in tears throughout most of this film. Sight is so essential to my every being, I cannot describe how awful it felt to me, to put myself in the shoes of someone losing perhaps the most important sense of all. It was absolutely devastating to be brought along this journey into nothingness with this film. And yet, as John puts it, it's still a gift bestowed upon him, just like this film is. The whole is so beautifully, atmospherically put together. The cinematography matches the subject so incredibly well, it works with how you could possibly show a person's story who can't see. For a person to overcome this disability, to make the most of it, to thrive on it, despite relying on all senses but his sight, is so amazingly inspirational. I found myself challenging myself to experience my senses, other than my sight more fully. I walked around my house with my eyes shut, I stood outside listening to the rain falling, I familiarised myself to my surroundings. No film to date has ever had this effect on me.

Beautiful agony

[Smallclone100 · 9/10 · 4 May 2017]

This is a semi-dramatized documentary focusing on retelling the audio memoirs of a man going blind. If that sounds slightly unusual, it's because it is. The cast lip sync the actual recorded words spoken by John Hull and his wife who detailed his descent into the debilitating world of visual impairment in the 1980s.

The memoirs capture the pure physical and psychological turmoil experienced by John as he experiences this loss of vision, and as he says he battles to live in reality instead of this nostalgic world that his brain is forcing upon him. The dreams he experiences and the way he describes them are beautiful bittersweet torture - as it is his only way of conjuring new images into his world, yet he wakes every morning crestfallen, as he remembers he cannot see, and they were just dreams. One night he dreams he can see his new child that was born after he lost his sight. The way this scene is directed (by Peter Middleton & James Spinney) is as magical as it is emotive.

John expresses to us that he believes part of his brain is dying as a portion of it no longer requires power to process images. He says he feels hungry for stimulation that he just cannot obtain. He also forgets what his wife looks like, which must be pure agony. The frustration of being rendered effectively useless as a parent also weighs heavily on his mind, and some points on the audio tapes you can almost feel the depression that John must be battling.

Dan Renton Skinner does an unbelievable job as the taunted John Hull. His facial expressions transport us into this hell that John must have been in and his performance is one of the most captivating of any portraying an illness / disability that I can remember.

I couldn't wait to splash down a few words about this film in the hope that just 1 or 2 people watch it as a result. That has to be a sign that of its' quality.

Beautiful agony

A strange, powerful and moving film that is significant not only for those affected by blindness, but those of us who with live with chronic illness of any sort.

[david-meldrum · 9/10 · 27 February 2019]

This is a strange and powerful film. It's basically a documentary, with the parts of the people involved portrayed on screen by actors, lip-synching the real life words of the participants. It makes for an other-worldly experience, that's gives a deep insight in to the at once familiar but also utterly alien the main protagonist is forced to inhabit.

The film relates the experiences of John Hull, a writer and theologian who found himself losing his sight just before the birth of his first child. To make sense of his experiences he taped his thoughts - first, reflections on the more practical part of his experiences. As someone who needed to read for his work, for example, he went searching for audiobooks of the academic texts he needed. He discovered that it was assumed that 'blind people don't read big books'; so with an army of friends and families, a library of his books was committed to tape.

As time passes he discovers he needs to understand the condition itself, not just the practicalities of it; he'd found himself so busy preparing for and learning to live with blindness that it prevented him for understanding it. He had to learn to think about his condition: 'If I didn't understand, it would defeat me'.

So begins a series of profound reflections which, as a person who has lived with chronic pain for 20 years, I find very resonant and truthful. The person offering a miracle cure (hypnotherapy) who can't accept John's insistence that his eyes won't just grow back; the people who say he doesn't want his sight back because he seems to have adjusted to it. If we complain about our condition, we're classified as defeatist moaners; if we accept it (as we have to), we've given up (especially as Christians). Onlookers seem only to have categories for the heroic overcomer or pathetic victim; there's no room for someone to keep on, keeping on.

The reflection that 'everyday I wake up, I've lost my sight again'; a painfully truthful expression of the reality that every day I wake up, I'm in pain again.

The reflection on why bad things happen to Christians - 'why shouldn't they happen to me?'; a line I've used myself. This struggle seems to be a bigger one for the people around us, then for the sufferers ourselves. As he says 'I don't regard faith as a shield against the normal ups and downs of life'.

His child screams; they rush to discover it's a finger trapped in a door, but even so he's impotent. "The discovery that you're useless is not a nice discovery for a father to make'; how true. I lie some days in pain, aware of my enforced physical absence from my children and my apparent uselessness as a result.

There are many more moments to reflect on, but the surreal and moving conclusion is the most weighty, as John's dreams are shown melting in to on-screen reality. He ends at a point where blindness (chronic illness) either enables in the sufferer some kind of rebirth, or it destroys you. As he says this, him and his family are soaked in rain, a symbolic baptism and regeneration. It's truthful, healing and challenging all at once.

A unique and wonderful film, to be lived with and drunk deep from - especially for chronic illness sufferers and those who travel with them.

Moving conclusion but boring pace

[awvknj · 5/10 · 6 March 2022]

I managed to make it through this movie on a streaming service so I was able to press pause several times.

Frustrating often- I felt I would've rather listened to his story without the attempt to add the visual pictures -although every so often the exquisite contrast of time spent in nature was beautiful. During his visit to Melbourne he was commenting on how nothing seemed any different and it was so disconcerting to him and I kept wondering what about your sense of smell? I notice that when I go to different places especially when traveling by air. So that part didn't seem realistic to me although if it was his experience who am I to argue with it. Another frustration - at the end -the words superimposed on the view flew by on the screen so quickly and were a color very difficult to read against the sky - ironic since the whole subject matter was about blindness- couldn't they find a better type face? I Found it necessary to pause and rewind several times in order to understand what the information was that was being presented at the end.

Criticisms aside I was very moved toward the end (especially after the arduous journey of experiencing earlier parts of the film) when he spoke about his experience of feeling the divine presence and Grace surrounding him. That truly moved me and then his realizing that his blindness was a gift the question- was not why me ? But what do I do with it.

That was the golden moment and the emotional connection I made with this film. Perhaps those who have rated it so highly saw it on a large screen and were somehow able to enter into the world more- for me I never really felt a connection with what was going on until that one part I described just above.

The effect of having the screen dark black at frequent intervals throughout the story was disconcerting and I suppose intentional to jar the viewer into experiencing somehow what a blind person who has lost their sight would feel -however it didn't really contribute to the film -to me it was pulling me out of it rather than pulling me in.

Insightful and Emotional

[emtacs · 9/10 · 24 September 2016]

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.

A beautiful conclusion of a journey searching for meaning beyond sight

[the_flightlessbird · 9/10 · 10 January 2018]

A semi-documentary drama, directed by Peter Middleton and James Spinney, produced by The New York Times, is a memoir of a theologian and author, John M. Hull. The 90-minute documentary was developed from Hull's cassette-taped audio cassette that gradually lost sight in 1983. The main film is a second project of Middleton and Spinney who previously worked on short films, as well as a Hull record of approximately 16 hours. Middleton and Spinney then selected and compiled the parts that best demonstrate Hull's physical and psychological expression when he loses his eyesight and how it affects his personal emotions and family life.

The film is somewhat unusual, as it recounts the memoirs of a man's audio recording and his struggle with the process of his blindness. Middleton and Spinney beautifully visualize Hull's audio recording with his wife, Marilyn. With the brilliant performance of the actors who berlyp-sync harmonize the actual words spoken by John and his wife, managed to strengthen the visualization of this film.

It is, however, an irony when we enjoy a visual presentation of the emotions and feelings of a person who loses his visual abilities. As if this film can make us understand Hull's struggle to control his emotions when he lost his eyes slowly. But this is what Middleton and Spinney did. Using Hull's audio diary, they elegantly visualize every Hull word that is equally beautiful.

The cinematographer, Gerry Floyd does an amazing job. By taking close-up pictures, we see detail in the Hull world. As if we could feel the texture of the walls, the surface of the wooden table, even the gentle face of his wife. Makes us feel what Hull feels when he has to grope around the walls and surrounds while walking. We are invited to feel Hull's emotions as he loses his ability to see, feel more detail everything around him.

Accompanied by a musical score with the right portion, bringing our atmosphere and feelings into every Hull's speech, with no added soundtrack. The most memorable and memorable moment is when Hull and his wife dance in the living room accompanied by the soundtrack of The Mamas and The Papas, making us feel the warmth of love between the two.

John not only lost his eyesight, but it took him to lose one by one other things in his life. How can he read, take notes, research, teach at college? What about his other responsibilities? As if that were not enough, Hull's blindness also snatched his past. He slowly loses his memory of the visual around him, even his wife's face. He also had not had time to see the face of his son Lizzie and 2 children last born after his blindness.

John reveals to us that he believes some of his brains are dying because some of them no longer have the power to process images. He said he was hungry for the stimuli he could not get. The frustration of being uselessly effective as a parent is also a heavy burden in his mind, and several times in his audio recording, we can almost feel the depression John has to endure. At first, Hull wrestled against the signs of his blindness even until he was totally blind. He recorded the books he had to read to remain active as a teacher. He continues to reject the reality of his life. But gradually, the resistance was in vain. He also learned to accept reality.

"Was I going to live in reality or live in nostalgia? I would not live in nostalgia, but would live in reality. And become blind, "he said. The dream he experienced and the way he described it was a beautiful bitter torture, for it was the only way to bring a new picture to his world. "It's a present," he said. "It was not the gift I wanted, but it was a gift." At that point, his question became: "It's not why I got it, but what would I do with it?" Hull learned to be blind. It makes it an advantage, rather than flaws. He felt things around him in a way he had never felt before.

"How can you blind and sighted people really understand each other? How can man understand women? How can the rich understand the poor? How can the old understand the young? Can we have insight into other people? This answer to the whole question is at the end of Hull's quote statement that "To get our full humanity, the blind and the sighted people need to meet each other." A beautiful conclusion of a journey searching for meaning beyond sight and hearing.

From darkness to light

[akilbunglowala · 9/10 · 28 June 2018]

I usually don't go in to a film totally blind (no pun intended), so I knew it was about a theologian who slowly goes blind and decides to keep recordings of his blindness. Interesting enough. Somehow I delayed watching it until now. I am here to tell you it is a truly rewarding experience. Don't let the title put you off. Slowly and surely you'll be immersed in John Hull's baritone voice with his succinct observations on life. And you will applaud his caring family who are always by his side. Rain drops have taken on a whole new meaning for me now.

Just watch it!

[medokn · 10/10 · 30 April 2017]

Just go and watch it! what an amazing movie, whatever movie style/type you like, I guarantee you you will love this movie, a must watch!

It really introduced an amazing story with real events and the recorded voices, immersive scenery and environment/emotions and perfect acting.

10/10. perfect.

Far too long...

[romen-94982 · 4/10 · 26 August 2018]

It probably is not socially desirable to bash a film that has intellectual and artistic aspirations. Nonetheless I'm having a go at it. First of all, this is a documentary. It's very, very, very slow. Now and again interesting cinematography and an interesting premise about the role of vision in the formation of memories. As proposed it has material for say 25 minutes, this documentary is an hour longer. My wife gave up viewing after about 25 mintues. My daughter and myself sat it through but not to our satisfaction. Maybe if the perspectives of the other characters were more elaborated it could have been more interesting, but this wasn't done. So, don't be surprised if you're having a go viewing this, you find yourself pressing the power button after 25 minutes. Despite the favorable reviews of other viewers and expert critics.

Deeply Moving Film

[jvbofjc · 10/10 · 30 November 2017]

Every once in a while a film is made that captures an experience many of us will never encounter, but are richer for learning about said experience. John Hull's academic approach to life has provided a prolific archive of sound recordings documenting his experience with his blindness. Directors/ Writers Middleton and Spinney have provided a cinematic experience of blindness for the seeing. This poetic and inspiring film introduces the world to a remarkably bright, sensitive and expressive human being.

90min is what it takes to leave you speechless

[signoredeltempo · 10/10 · 9 June 2019]

It's very rare these days to find movies such as this one. It's almost unbelievable that just ninety minutes can deliver so much.

It's a journey through a man's life as it gradually darkens until eventually everything disappears. The way the story is told is by listening John recording his thoughts and his emotions on cassettes - a sort of spoken diary. Notes, as he calls them.

It's also a tough journey to listen to because there's nothing positive --you'll agree -- that going blind might get you, and the way this is exposed makes it feel almost real. His thoughts are not going to be easy on you. They are going to resonate in your mind as knives. When you lose so much, you'll see the void it leaves even from the smallest things you wouldn't notice otherwise. And this is felt many times throughout the movie.

He says he was lucky to have had his loved ones alongside him all the time. This, however, will also prove hard to weigh on your shoulders because you'll face several times to be simply useless to others. Also, what can you reply to your daughter saying: "if I cried and my tears fell on your eyes, would you be able to see again?"? I was speechless after those word. Hard words.

I've watched it today. I'm certain it will not be the only time. Ensure not to miss it.