Danny Boyle: '127 Hours is euphoric'

Danny Boyle has said that he wants audiences to leave his latest film 127 Hours with a feeling of euphoria.

Speaking at the London Film Festival, Boyle said that climber Aron Ralston - played by James Franco - had "profound" and "deep" experiences while fighting to free himself from underneath a boulder in the mountains of Utah.

"There is an extraordinary, very profound and deep sense of euphoria in getting out of there. Life being given back again," the Oscar-winning director said. "James's acting of that pain, that process he goes through - not just in the arm-cutting scene - the whole thing, it is an extraordinary empathetic thing that takes you to a place that you do feel very vulnerable in."

Boyle revealed that he and Franco discussed the pain experienced by women giving birth as something to compare Ralston's ordeal to.

"I've had three kids and I've been there for each of [the births] and the first one was an extraordinary thing that I'll never forget," Boyle explained. "I tried to talk to James about the way women go through a plateau of pain way beyond anything guys will ever feel, so we tried to get into that territory."

He continued: "It is very disturbing, but also worth so much more than the suffering that's involved. We always wanted the end of the journey to feel like a passageway to something that was much great than what was left behind."

127 Hours closed last night's BFI London Film Festival and will open in the UK on January 7 next year.

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