Synopsis
After losing sight in 1983, John Hull began keeping an audio diary, a unique testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal, excavating the interior world of blindness. Following on from the Emmy Award-winning short film of the same name, Notes on Blindness is an ambitious and groundbreaking work, both affecting and innovative.
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Cast
- John M. HullHimself (voice)
- Marilyn HullHerself (voice)
- Dan Renton SkinnerJohn Hull
- Simone KirbyMarilyn Hull
- Eileen DaviesMadge Hull
- David HobbsJack Hull
- Victoria WicksLibrarian
- Jamie BradleyFaith Healer
- Imogen HullHerself (voice)
- Thomas HullHimself (voice)
Recommendations
- 90
Screen Daily
Hull’s wisdom, and the agility of his insights as he struggles to make sense of his condition, form the basis of this elegant, evocative and deeply affecting documentary. - 90
The New York Times
The tone of the narration is so wrenchingly honest that the film never lapses into self-pity or relies on mystical platitudes. - 80
CineVue
Notes on Blindness raises fascinating questions about our reliance on visual memory aids and the amount to which we truly experience the world around us. - 80
The Telegraph
A seamless patchwork of reminiscences, tracing John’s voyage into darkness with an astute and sensitive cinematic imagination. - 80
Time Out London
Hull clearly had a profound and lucid response to his blindness, and this thoughtful, illuminating film goes some way to inhabiting his thoughts. - 80
The Guardian
It is a thoroughly absorbing and moving film, especially when Hull has a dream about recovering his sight and seeing his children. The tone is sober, unflashy, and Hull’s reflections on God are presented without any hectoring or special pleading. Affecting and profoundly intelligent. - 70
Village Voice
By having their actors lip-sync along to Hull and his family's own voices, the staged re-creations that so often pad nonfiction films here achieve a peculiar formalist beauty. - 63
RogerEbert.com
If the subject interests you, don’t let my mildly negative review dissuade you from going to see it. I would like to see it again myself, but this time in the version I can share with several of my relatives whose vision is no longer present.
