Film Review: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Perhaps its was the anti-climatic award season or the lackluster news conference-style Golden Globes. But this year’s best movies have not received the main-stream press attention that they would have once garnered. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is one such film that has been largely overlooked by American audiences.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a stunning film based on the memoir written by Jean-Dominique Bauby, former editor of French Elle. After Bauby suffers a stroke that leaves him in a coma for 20 days he wakes to find that he is suffering from “locked-in” syndrome; he is completely conscious but unable move or communicate.
The movie, a cinematographic and directorial masterpiece, takes us into Bauby’s world with a series of flashbacks to his carefree past, a glimpse into his fantasies, as well as seeing the harsh reality of his real world from the first-person perspective. The film is completely captivating, from the cloudy first scenes of the movie to the sterile pale blue of the hospital room.
Since debuting at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2007, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly has won numerous awards including Golden Globes for Best Foreign Film and Best Director. Hopefully after this Sunday’s Academy Awards, this film will attract even more attention that it surely deserves.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon)
Theatres: Click here for a list of theatres in the New York area.
Rating and Running Time: PG-13, 114 min, French with English subtitles
Photo credit: wikimedia
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1 Comment
I loved “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, but the movie I’d rather see is “My Stroke of Insight”, which is the amazing bestselling book by Dr Jill Bolte Taylor. It is an incredible story and there’s a happy ending. She was a 37 year old Harvard brain scientist who had a stroke in the left half of her brain. The story is about how she fully recovered, what she learned and experienced, and it teaches a lot about how to live a better life. Her TEDTalk at TED dot com is fantastic too. It’s been spread online millions of times and you’ll see why!