MIFF NOTES: Blind (2014, Dir. Eskil Vogt)

Riffing heavily on the visual devices of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, writer/director Eskil Vogt's Blind toys with memory and narrative reality to create a twisting, somewhat convoluted, interpretation of the writing process through the (mind's) eye of a visually impaired Norwegian writer.

To be fair to Blind, I wasn't as alert as I needed to be to fully appreciate Vogt's continuously re-contextualised plotting. At the same time, to be honest, the film's dispassionate tone left me cold quite early on. It fits; the film's protagonist, Ingrid (played precisely by Ellen Dorrit Petersen) is a chilly figure, struggling with the onset of her blindness and the emotional and sexual distance of her partner, but it doesn't make for a welcoming experience. Because of this, though I respect the film's overall aesthetic and much of its cleverness, as a whole it never moved me. I found is a little too cynical.

It is another film I'd not be adverse to revisiting though. The device works and with some more attention (on my part) I'm sure Blind has more to give.

★★★

Trailer (Norwegian):

Disclaimer: Due to excessive work and excessive film going, MIFF posts are going to be pretty sketchy this year. I'll come back to some of the better ones and write them up proper-like if the mood takes.