Saturday, May 23, 2009

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - dvd (2007)
I had seen the trailer for this movie being thrashed during the film festival either last year or the year before, and I was always struck by the loudness of it. Watching the dvd today, I was drawn to its more quiet moments and its dreamy quality.

I read the book not long after it came out. It was written by Jean-Dominique Bauby a 42 year old man who worked for Elle magazine. While out enjoying a drive with his son, he has a huge cerebro vascular accident, is in a coma for weeks and wakes up in hospital unable to move anything but one eye. With the assistance of translators, from his hospital bed he writes his memoir, one word at a time, blinking each time the correct letter is reached.

Beautiful movie, I wish more were like this. Able to touch and tell a moving story without any sap or artificial sweetness. Bravo little french film. 4/5.

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