Blindsight, Chicago 10, Miss Pettigrew
When you first meet Kyila, she fixes her attention on you, her intense gaze taking you in. It takes a beat to realize she is blind. Having studied English in the United Kingdom, this Tibetan teen is now a spokesperson for Braille Without Borders, an organization founded by Sabriye Tenberken, a German woman, blind since she was 12 who has dedicated herself to helping the blind in the most far-reaching places. She started a school in Llasa, traveling around Tibet enlisting blind children. As most Tibetans believe that blind people are possessed by demons or have committed some horrible crime in a past life, her efforts are doubly important, enabling blind children to affirm their lives at the same time as they are given the tools to work and establish themselves in their culture. After 9 years, now the first group of students are graduating and 6, including Kyila, were given the opportunity to climb Mount Everest in the company of seasoned climbers, some sighted some not. The film made of that excursion is one of the best of the year. With its oxymoron of a title, “Blindsight” actually describes the ability of a blind person to sense light stimulus he or she is unable to see consciously. Of course, metaphorically the term shows the extraordinary way that sight or vision can be achieved through other means. The film takes you through that journey: a gorgeously shot travel piece through a part of the world little known to Westerners-- especially resonant now as the news features Tibetans struggling with Chinese occupation. The film stays clear of those politics but as producer Sybil Robson Orr made clear at a recent special screening, permission to film was often a sketchy compromise, fortunately negotiated over drinks.
Politics are at issue in “Chicago 10,” director Brett Morgan's take on that historical and hysterical time when protesters clashed with the police at the 1968 Democratic Convention. Juxtaposing archival footage with animation, the film emphasizes the theater of the courtroom as counter-culture icons such as Abbie Hoffman (Hank Azaria, also the voice of Allen Ginsberg), Jerry Rubin (Mark Ruffalo), David Dellinger (Dylan Baker), Bobby Seale (Jeffrey Wright) clash with Judge Julius Hoffman (no relation to Abbie). The filmmakers originally offered the role of Judge Hoffman to Dustin Hoffman (no relation to Julius or Abbie), but the job finally fell to Roy Scheider, his voice lending the appropriate authority to this his last role. This film is based on an ambitious idea that will rankle historians, but which Morgan feels has some bearing on events today.
For a movie that is so deliciously effervescent it seems to have no relation to anything serious whatever, see “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day.” Down on her luck Miss Pettigrew (Frances McDormand) finagles her way into a job with Delysia Lafosse (adorable, milky skinned Amy Adams) who is trying to reconcile her career advancement as a cabaret singer with the men she must bed to get there. Miss Pettigrew helps with Delysia's social calendar and counsels her wisely toward her one true love (Lee Pace). Along the way, Miss Pettigrew gets a make over and a man of her own (Ciaran Hinds, diabolically good in “The Seafarer” on Broadway). But what does this well-heeled businessman really see in Miss Pettigrew? Good sense and proper undies.
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