Blind Spot (1981) User Reviews

Capable of permanently shifting one's inner paradigms

[philosopherjack · 1 September 2023]

Claudia von Alemann's Blind Spot is a small, quiet film, almost seeming designed to be overlooked (it might as well have been so designed, given its lowly place in the conventional canon) but capable of permanently shifting one's inner paradigms. A young German woman, Elisabeth, comes to Lyon to carry out research on the real-life 19th century writer and activist Flora Tristan, focused less on traditional archival methods than on walking in Tristan's footsteps, seeing what she might have seen, hearing what she might have heard, thereby moving toward a new form of identification and understanding. It's a sometimes draining project (she comments that she can't even find a bakery that's open, let alone tap the depths of Tristan's experiences) and in any case unclear what output might result from it; part of the film's point is that it couldn't possibly be clear, because a feminist history requires a comprehensive renewal, encompassing everything from the nature of the inquiry (Elisabeth somewhat randomly finds herself listening to first-person testimony on Lyon's persecution of the Jews during WW2) to how one defines and engages with eventual discovery (equally randomly meeting a woman who makes collages out of newspaper headlines as an way of better perceiving the inter-related totality of what's reported). The project is personal as well as professional: it appears that Elisabeth has left her job, and her relationship with her partner and daughter is uncertain (there are a couple of hints that she may be pregnant); she briefly makes out with a stranger (and there are several moments when the film makes us aware of the male gaze upon her) but it doesn't appear to lead anywhere. The film concludes, unexpectedly, in two very different kinds of musical outburst; the ending is tinged with frustration, failure, but also a kind of acceptance and reclamation of self, even a sense of transcendence, in which the viewer may gratefully share.

Very Slow

[ishansharma-95605 · 1/10 · 11 June 2023]

The movie is very slow and devoid of interesting characters. The technique, background score, cinematography are very good.

The movie is let down because of its bad story, uninteresting premise and poor screenplay. It can be understood that you want to present a gloomy story, but does it have to be so slow. The whole of movie could be wrapped up in a 30 minute episode of some anthology and could have worked. It is a good movie for those who want to sleep through it.

Such movies are made for the intellectuals to win awards. Even the intellectuals don't really like it and only pretend to like it.

Not recommended at all.