| Related Item |
 |
|
|
|
|
‘In the Land of the Deaf’
By Desson Howe
Washington Post Staff Writer
October 07, 1994
|
|
|
|
|
|
"In the Land of the Deaf," a French documentary about life without sound, welcomes hearing audiences into an invisible world inhabited by some 130 million people worldwide. Spending time with children and adults, for whom hand and facial gestures are the only means of communication, Nicolas Philibert's movie obliterates all preconceptions of communication. For audiences -- hearing and deaf -- it's a life-affirming experience.When preteen student Florent Desjardins cries into his book, and his stern but caring teacher calls him a baby, the mundane universality hits home. When deaf instructor Jean-Claude Poulain, who teaches sign language to adults, lights up the screen with his animated, hangdog expressions, it's as if he's talking directly to the heart. Far from "handicapped" or "special," these people are entrancingly normal. Philibert's 99-minute film, shot over a period of eight months and pared from 40 hours of footage, is spare and free of convention and sentimentality. Without narration (that documentary crutch for the hearing), or compulsive identification of institutions and individuals, the movie flits around in this "Land of the Deaf," observing or meeting with old and young, teachers and students, people in institutions and in the world at large. The anecdotes, insights and ironies (translated into subtitles) come one after another. A young adult recalls that her parents refused to believe she was deaf, preferring to think of their infant-daughter as shy and self-contained. When another woman, the only deaf member of her family, found it hard to lip-read spirited conversations around the dinner table, her parents would promise to fill her in later -- then forget to do so. Hearing people from different countries, Poulain explains, can never directly communicate without years of language school. And although sign symbols vary from culture to culture (and here, he demonstrates a few differences), deaf people from China, Africa or Europe can eventually understand one another. "After a couple of days, we can be chatting away." Young Florent provides the most charming moment when he tugs on the filmmakers' boom microphone, then squints so intently into the camera, he seems to be peering directly into the audience. For the ones staring back in the darkness, the moment is deeply affecting. Even W. C. Fields -- at his most misanthropic -- would turn to butter. IN THE LAND OF THE DEAF (Unrated) — In French and sign language with subtitles.
|
Save money with NextCard Visa
