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Rating of
4/4
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 12/20/2011
The story of "Jean-Do" Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), editor of elle Magazine who suffers from locked-in syndrome due to a stroke. He narrates how he is treated at a hospital in Berck-sur-Mer, France. It shows who his visitors (friend who was kidnapped in Beirut/mother of her children) were, his relationship with his father, how he communicates thru a speech therapist (Henriette Durand) and imaginations. His frustrations were also showed such as the simplicity of not talking to anybody on Sundays; a TV set being on and the ability to react to a gorgeous therapist showing tongue exercises. He dictates what he sees and experienced in his personal life. Bauby had the tenacity to create a book where he can leave his legacy.
Engaging from beginning to end, the movie never …
Rating of
2.5/4
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Amyaronson - wrote on 07/18/2011
I've been meaning to watch this for some time now, and I finally did, so yay! It was a critically acclaimed movie a couple of years ago and NPR talked about it every other second. It's a true story, based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir. Bauby was the Chief Editor of Elle in France, and when he was in his 40's, he suffered from a major stroke that left his brain fully functioning, but everything paralyzed except for one eye. He learned to communicate through a system involving the alphabet, very patient people, and blinking. In this way, he wrote his memoir.
It was halfway through the film before I realized I was watching it dubbed. I kept thinking, "I thought this was in French! Why are they in France with French accents speaking English!?" Oh Amy. So, that cleared up the weird …
Rating of
4/4
Borderline Great/Masterful
Franz Patrick - wrote on 10/31/2008
I’m not going to deny that I didn’t shed a tear while watching this touching film. From the first scene to the last, I was completely into it because the story is very human and the way the story unfolded is far from predictable. Julian Schnabel, the director, took many risks that actually paid off: one is placing the audience into the main character’s body right from the very beginning. By doing that, we are immediately able to feel and hear what the protagonist wants to express whether we want to or not. Mathieu Amalric who plays Jean-Dominique Bauby impressed me so much. I thought that Amalric really was paralyzed and it hurts just to look at his condition. This is the first time I’ve heard of Locked-In Syndrome, where the person is aware of everything that’s going on around …
Rating of
4/4
Best movie of the year so far
Allison - wrote on 11/11/2007
About 10 years ago I read the story of former Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who dictated his biography by blinking his eye, because he was otherwise completetly paralyzed.
I was ecstatic when I heard the movie was coming out. But the telling of the story completely exceeded my expectations, especially through the camerawork (as written in by the screenwriter).
Emmanuelle Seigner was outstanding as the mother of his children. Max von Sydow was incredibly moving as his father (Papinou). I thought that he deserved an Oscar or a Cesar at least. Most likely his performance will go by unnoticed.
It is sad that this wasn't France's entry for the Academy's Best Foreign Language Film category. Grr. Well, so far it's my #1 movie for the year. I was thinking that it would probably …
