Scan and Pan
Friday, January 11, 2008
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
December 28, 1995. Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), the editor of the fashion magazine "Elle", wakes up in the hospital, learning to his horror that he has suffered a stroke and is almost completely paralyzed except for being able to move and blink his left eye. With the help of therapist Henriette (Marie-Josée Croze), he learns to communicate using blinks to indicate letters as the alphabet is repeatedly read out to him. Using this method of communication, Jean-Do dictates his memoirs to transcriber Claude (Anne Consigny) from inside the living prison that his body has become.
Screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, Oliver Twist) translates Bauby's remarkable memoir into an equally remarkable screenplay that achieves dramatic power and emotional clarity without succumbing to the usual cliches of the 'sick person' genre by telling the story with great honesty. Painter turned director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls) transforms it into a piece of visual poetry by crafting a unique first-person cinematic narrative that allows the audience to experience as much as possible what Bauby did. It's a visceral and intimate creation that succeeds beautifully by consistently defying convention.
Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) brilliantly suggests a haunting waking dream with soft, hazy lighting, while making creative use of the camera to place the audience firmly inside Bauby's head. The score by Paul Cantelon (Everything Is Illuminated) contributes to the dream-like atmosphere.
How much can an actor really convey if he or she is limited to using one eye for their performance? For a gifted actor like Amalric, a single eye is enough to open a window into the very soul of his character, and his voice-overs of Bauby's internal dialog capture the despair, acceptance, patience, courage, and black humor that mark Jean-Do's state of mind. It's one of the more astounding pieces of acting I've seen in the cinema.
Schnabel also directs strong performances from Croze as Henriette, Consigny as Claude, Max Von Sydow as Bauby's father (a moving performance from a veteran actor), Emmanuelle Seigner as the mother of Bauby's children, and Olatz López Garmendia as his physical therapist.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is quite simply a work of art. There's no other way to describe it, but even that description can't do full justice to the film. It's at times challenging, at others terrifying, but always life affirming.
[5 out of 5 stars]
A poetic film based on the true story of a man trapped in the ultimate prison, his own body, with only the ability to blink as a way to communicate with the outside world.
December 28, 1995. Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), the editor of the fashion magazine "Elle", wakes up in the hospital, learning to his horror that he has suffered a stroke and is almost completely paralyzed except for being able to move and blink his left eye. With the help of therapist Henriette (Marie-Josée Croze), he learns to communicate using blinks to indicate letters as the alphabet is repeatedly read out to him. Using this method of communication, Jean-Do dictates his memoirs to transcriber Claude (Anne Consigny) from inside the living prison that his body has become.
Screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, Oliver Twist) translates Bauby's remarkable memoir into an equally remarkable screenplay that achieves dramatic power and emotional clarity without succumbing to the usual cliches of the 'sick person' genre by telling the story with great honesty. Painter turned director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls) transforms it into a piece of visual poetry by crafting a unique first-person cinematic narrative that allows the audience to experience as much as possible what Bauby did. It's a visceral and intimate creation that succeeds beautifully by consistently defying convention.
Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) brilliantly suggests a haunting waking dream with soft, hazy lighting, while making creative use of the camera to place the audience firmly inside Bauby's head. The score by Paul Cantelon (Everything Is Illuminated) contributes to the dream-like atmosphere.
How much can an actor really convey if he or she is limited to using one eye for their performance? For a gifted actor like Amalric, a single eye is enough to open a window into the very soul of his character, and his voice-overs of Bauby's internal dialog capture the despair, acceptance, patience, courage, and black humor that mark Jean-Do's state of mind. It's one of the more astounding pieces of acting I've seen in the cinema.
Schnabel also directs strong performances from Croze as Henriette, Consigny as Claude, Max Von Sydow as Bauby's father (a moving performance from a veteran actor), Emmanuelle Seigner as the mother of Bauby's children, and Olatz López Garmendia as his physical therapist.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is quite simply a work of art. There's no other way to describe it, but even that description can't do full justice to the film. It's at times challenging, at others terrifying, but always life affirming.
[5 out of 5 stars]
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