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From Amazon.co.uk
The seemingly claustrophobic story of a man imprisoned in his paralysed body becomes a dazzling and expansive movie about love, imagination, and the will to live. After a stroke, Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric, Kings and Queen) can only move his left eye--and through that eye he learns to communicate, one letter at a time. With the help of his speech therapist (Marie-Josee Croze, Munich) and a stenographer (Anne Consigny, Anna M.), Bauby writes the stunning memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. But such a plot summary makes the movie sound like lofty, self-important medicine--far from it. Director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls), working from an elegant screenplay by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and with an outstanding cast (which also includes Frantic's Emmanuelle Seigner as Bauby's neglected wife), has created a movie as engrossing and hypnotic as a thriller, a movie that wrestles with mortality yet has stubborn streaks of dark humour and eroticism, that portrays a man who overcomes unimaginable obstacles but refuses to paint him as a saint. Schnabel was once dismissed as a pompous and overblown painter, but he's crafted an intimate visual poem, a humble sonata about life at its most fragile. --Bret Fetzer
Product Description
Director Julian Schnabel's acclaimed film about the remarkable life of Jean-Dominique Bauby. Based on the best-selling memoir of the same name, the film tells the story of Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), editor of Elle Paris, who, after a stroke at the age of 45, was left paralysed and unable to speak or move a muscle. Trapped in what he saw as a 'diving bell', a prison from which he was unable to escape, Bauby's only lifeline became the temporary release, or 'butterfly', of his memories and imagination. With his physical movements so restricted, Bauby's only way of communicating with the outside world lay in the blinking of his eye, a tool he developed to such an extent that he was able to develop a code to represent letters of the alphabet, enabling him to, in turn, complete his memoirs.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
116 of 118 people found the following review helpful
By Jaybird
Format:DVD
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells the true story of a Jean Dominique Bauby, the debonair editor of French Elle, who suffered locked in syndrome following a devastating stroke. After the stroke he can only communicate by blinking his eye.
Everything about this as a premise for a film sounds terrible - he does not move, so what is filmic about it; he does not communicate verbally, so where is the dialogue or the relationships; he reflects on his life and his mortality, but how do you show that?
Do not be put off. The film is beautifully made, turning faces into landscapes and using careful palettes of colour to distinguish pre and post stroke scenes. The film shows how Jean-Do becomes a cypher for those around him, providing meaning to their lives, even though inside he is intrinsically himself. In the end, the film is about the meaning of this man's life and all our lives, clear-eyed and fearless.
It is moving without being sentimental or mawkish, insightful, funny, beautiful and intelligent. An absolute must see.
Everything about this as a premise for a film sounds terrible - he does not move, so what is filmic about it; he does not communicate verbally, so where is the dialogue or the relationships; he reflects on his life and his mortality, but how do you show that?
Do not be put off. The film is beautifully made, turning faces into landscapes and using careful palettes of colour to distinguish pre and post stroke scenes. The film shows how Jean-Do becomes a cypher for those around him, providing meaning to their lives, even though inside he is intrinsically himself. In the end, the film is about the meaning of this man's life and all our lives, clear-eyed and fearless.
It is moving without being sentimental or mawkish, insightful, funny, beautiful and intelligent. An absolute must see.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
By E. McKiernan
Format:DVD
The book is so beautiful a piece of personal philosophy that I went to see the film with some trepidation, but if anything the film adds to the book by Bauby. The film is beautifully shot, funny and moving (but not in a sentimental way).
The director (who does not speak fluent French) chose to retain the original language of the book and this, I believe speaks volumes in a world of cinema where the digestability of a film by a mass audience is often classed as more important than retaining the soul of a piece of artistic cinema. The film was originally meant to be made by Pathe and star Jonny Depp - I think a tragedy was averted!
This film can be enjoyed (yes enjoyed - despite its theme it really isnt at all depressing) on so many levels - as a compelling human story, as an uplifting philosophy and as a work of art. You should not miss this film.
The director (who does not speak fluent French) chose to retain the original language of the book and this, I believe speaks volumes in a world of cinema where the digestability of a film by a mass audience is often classed as more important than retaining the soul of a piece of artistic cinema. The film was originally meant to be made by Pathe and star Jonny Depp - I think a tragedy was averted!
This film can be enjoyed (yes enjoyed - despite its theme it really isnt at all depressing) on so many levels - as a compelling human story, as an uplifting philosophy and as a work of art. You should not miss this film.
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
By Chuck E
VINE™ VOICE
Format:DVD
Just when you started to feel that film had become little more than a merchandising exercise, along comes a release that reminds you what it can be. Reading The Diving Bell one could be forgiven for thinking it essentially unfilmable - so much is going on inside the head of the protagonist, there's little `action' not a great deal of dialogue, a slight plot... Yet, Schnabel's film is touched with genius and blessed with uniformly excellent performances, from the speech therapist down to the telephone engineers. Moreover, unlike other films dealing with disability, where the audience looks `at' the disability, here we look `from' - and there's a big difference. The decision to take the point of view from inside Bauby's head is inspired and completely transforms the relationship of the viewer to the subject. Technically and aesthetically it is a triumph - it's quite difficult to think how it could have been improved, even down to the soundtrack. Obviously, there's a depressing side to the tale of a man stricken by total paralysis(!), but the film stands as a testament to the remarkable resilience of the human spirit.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film!
A lovely and heart warming film i thoroughly enjoyed! Really made me realise how privileged I am to be able to walk around and enjoy the little things in life surrounded by the... Read more
Published 12 days ago by Molly Beresford
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE BOOK OR THE FILM? EITHER, THEY'RE EQUALLY GOOD.
What a story, and it's all true.
Having read the book a few years ago, (very well-written, a genuinely easy read concerning very difficult subject matter), I was wary, at... Read more
Having read the book a few years ago, (very well-written, a genuinely easy read concerning very difficult subject matter), I was wary, at... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Gareth Morgan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film
I love this film, it's so sad yet inspiring. Beautifully made and told. Makes me cry a little and I do like that in a film.
Published 3 months ago by L Being
3.0 out of 5 stars
Artistic film but boring.
Very arty. But not allot happens. Great if you want a tear jerker and for your girlfriend to love you even more when together watching this.
Published 5 months ago by romandoisneau
4.0 out of 5 stars
THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
This is an unusual film in that the victim of a stroke is telling it and it is filmed mostly from his eyes. I found it very moving indeed. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mrs. Yvonne P. Cook
5.0 out of 5 stars
Diving bell and the butterfly DVD
This was a very moving and inspiring film to watch. I also purchased the book and found it incredible, having watched the film, that some-one so disabled could have the... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Musician
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
This is one of the most amazing films i have ever seen.
But i suppose it depends on your taste and what you want in a film
It explains the lows(diving bell)... Read more
But i suppose it depends on your taste and what you want in a film
It explains the lows(diving bell)... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Raymond Darling
2.0 out of 5 stars
not recommending
Diving bell and the Butterfly got both my wife and i completely lost, we don't even know what to do with this DVD...destroy it or ??? Read more
Published 7 months ago by Cesar G. Esterman
1.0 out of 5 stars
Boring and disappointing
I have recently started learning French again (since school) and was looking forward to watching this film as had mainly excellent reviews and is a true story. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Nicola A
4.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant not maudlin
I suppose we all wonder at times what we would do if we were disabled in an accident. This movie tells the true story of a man that this happened to. Read more
Published 9 months ago by haunted
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