This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 6:54 pm and is filed under D, Drama, Movie Reviews, NEW ON VIDEO, True Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Director: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Matthieu Amalric, Marie-Josee Coze, Marina Hands, Max Von Sydow, Emanuelle Seigner
This moving and absorbing feature tells the true story of Elle editor, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a stroke and found himself stricken with near complete paralysis. The story is relentlessly grim and effective at giving the viewer a glimpse at the horrific “locked-in syndrome”, forcing us forced to imagine ourselves in this unimaginable situation. The flawless performances enhance Schnabel’s inspired vision that brought this one-of-a-kind first-person novel to the screen.
Matthieu Amalric plays a successful and self-absorbed editor, who begins the film seeing his hospital room-sized world through only his left eye after awakening from a short coma. Viewers hear his internal thoughts and see his flashbacks as the horrible story of condition unfolds. Over time, Bauby, who can only blink his left eye, learns to communicate, deals with personal issues and writes a book, upon which the film is based upon.
The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is another film dealing with the true tale of a person dealing with incredible adversity. Like previous features such as My Left Foot, our ability to deal with challenges is the real story here. Wonderful cinema, I suppose, but pretty depressing for an evening’s entertainment.
