Must-Rent-DVD: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Here's a movie for the top of your Netflix queue: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Bauby, at age 43 and with a wife, three kids and a mistress, as well as his work, occupying his life, suffered a massive stroke that left him with a very rare condition known as Locked-In Syndrome. Essentially, his mind was perfectly intact, but the only part of his body he could move was his left eye, which he could blink.
Bauby had signed a deal to write a book before his accident, and after concocting a genius, yet tedious way to communicate with his speech therapist, he decided to write a book about his life trapped in the prison of his mind. Via a painstaking system that required an assistant to go through a list of letters while Bauby blinked when he wanted to choose one, Bauby completed the book, which took approximately 200,000 blinks of his eye (and nearly two minutes for him to get out each word).
Those are the technical details, which are, in and of themselves, pretty amazing, but it's the emotional wallop of Bauby's story that makes the movie such a winner. Johnny Depp was originally set to star as Bauby, but when scheduling conflicts arose with Pirates of the Caribbean, Mathieu Amalric stepped in and gave a performance that's nothing short of haunting, while Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski devised beautiful shots that make viewers feel like the story is unfolding, literally, through Bauby's eyes.
And speaking of awards, the movie snagged a bunch, including Best Foreign Film and Best Director Golden Globe for Schnabel, Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, National Board of Review's Best Foreign Film and Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay (Ronald Harwood) and Best Film Editing (Juliette Welfling).
And speaking of awards, the movie snagged a bunch, including Best Foreign Film and Best Director Golden Globe for Schnabel, Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, National Board of Review's Best Foreign Film and Oscar nominations for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay (Ronald Harwood) and Best Film Editing (Juliette Welfling).
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