Blindness

I just got back from a screening of Blindness, after the press conferencev (I got in!!!). The review will be printed in the Saint in time for the UK release date, which is early October. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, except for the voice over, which choked the film and distracted from the performances, particularly Julianne Moore's. She conveyed everything that was being said, and the constant droning on about the meaning of blindness cast over her scenes was unnecessary. Her love for the apocalyptic, which she admitted to at the press conference, shone intensely during the film's darker scenes when she was able to exercise the less angelic aspects of her character. I was able to ask the screenwriter which character he found the most difficult to write, and Meirelles responded by saying that it was Moore's - he had trouble keeping her from being a "flat angel". She wasn't, though the script seemed to demand it, thanks to her nuanced treatment of the character.


Moore, of course, credited her performance to Meirelles, who helped her try to convey the naturalism that the script tried to translate from the Nobel-prize winning novel. "He elicits performances from actors [in which] you don't feel like they're acting." This was especially true for Bernal, who was absolutely chilling as the self-anointed king of the quarantine, and was definitely not given enough screen time. The deep emotional understanding he was able to cultivate for his character came through when he talked about how terrified he was on the first day of shooting, and how scary yet liberating being blind can be.


Interestingly, Meirelles seemed irritated by comparisons to Lord of the Flies, and said that the film was more about searching for human dignity than savagery alone. I disagree, because some of the scenes in the quarantine seemed to be ripped from the book, and were more about people searching for food or power than dignity. Screenwriter McKellan said he was inspired by the devastation that governments have left their citizens to suffer in recent years, mentioning the arena in New Orleans that many were forced to take shelter in after Hurricane Katrina. "Tragically, it kept feeling timely," McKellan said of his first failed attempt to get the rights to the novel in 1998, "the allegory of the book has been kept alive."


Underneath the political allegory is a discussion of human nature, and how capricious it can be. Meirelles explained: "How do we organize society when society collapses? There's so many different questions, and that's what I like about this film." The film doesn't answer any of the questions either - the strangling voice over did little but offer irritating cliches - but I guess that's part of the appeal. The cinematography, sound and editing, bent around creating a sense of disorientation and showing what blind people sense - taste, touch, sound - did a good job of conveying the "seeing, but not seeing" the story centres on.

A more detailed review to follow in the next Saint.

The madness as people rush the table to get autographs and pictures

Director Fernando Meirelles and Gale Garcia Bernal

PS: According to the director, everyone should go watch Black Sand, a documentary about blindness that was one of the strongest influences on the film.