THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
The Joy And Beauty Of A One-Eyed Twilight Filled With Love and Tenderness
PopcornReel.com Movie Review: "The
Diving Bell And The Butterfly"
By Omar P.L. Moore/December 21, 2007
Marie-Josee Croze as Henriette, in "La Scaphandre Et Le Papillon" (aka "The
Diving Bell And The Butterfly"), one of the year's best films. The Miramax
release is directed by Julian Schnabel and expanded to more theaters in North
America today. (Photo: Miramax Films)
It is difficult to imagine a more visually glorious invention
this year than "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly", Julian Schnabel's superbly
directed and beautifully shot drama, an amazing true story based on the life of
Elle
magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who before reaching 40 was paralyzed by a
calamitous stroke that left him with only the benefit of movement
of his left eye, which he blinked to speak and convey what turned into a book of
his memoirs, from which this film was adapted (by Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood.) The film,
one of 2007's best -- which won Mr. Schnabel the Best Director prize at
Cannes this year -- opened in additional U.S. cities today while continuing in
New York and Los Angeles.
Janusz Kaminski's camerawork is fascinating and wondrous -- especially during
the film's first ten minutes, which visually are the best opening minutes of any
film in 2007. Mathieu Almaric steps into the role of the man
affectionately known as Jean-Do and does so well, taking on the enormous physical
challenges of a man imprisoned by his own muscular limitations, yet freed by the
power of his infinite spiritual possibilities. While as a able-bodied
person Mr. Bauby may have lived life in a haze, he lives it post-stroke freely
and clearly as a cyclops-like prisoner, as if he had a thousand lifetimes of
visual ecstasy to experience and treasure. Mr. Almaric refuses to indulge
the audience with a "pity" performance, if you will, an acting turn that a few
other thespians would have milked into a tear-jerk festival sponsored by the
tender hearts at Kleenex. That is not meant as a harsh observation -- it
is simply a tribute to Mr. Almaric's wise choice to be as unsentimental as
possible, even as the the visions and feelings he experiences speak decibel levels
higher. Almaric allows Mr. Kaminski (cinematographer of Steven Spielberg's
"Schindler's List", "Saving Private Ryan", "Minority Report", "Munich" et al)
and his camera to guide the audience, while he plays down his own entombment.
The actor gives Monsieur Bauby a wild sense of humor however, which may be
surprising to some, but it is clear that Bauby's lust for life and the five
women in it, is at its zenith, despite his circumstances.
The women in question, Celine -- to whom he hastily refers as "the mother of my
children, not my wife" -- or words to that effect, is played with a mix of
warmth and ice by Emmanuelle Seigner ("La Vie En Rose".) She is effective,
lending Celine a caring, maternal heart even though she had assumedly long
stopped loving Mr. Bauby, whose backstory as a fast-living, womanizing editor is
wisely toned down in "Diving Bell". Mr. Schnabel doesn't waste time with
such typical story devices to achieve understanding; he treats his audience like
adults, and he knows that they too, know better. The other women in Bauby's life include two hospital attendants, Henriette (wonderfully acted with
sensuality and smarts by Marie-Josee Croze) and Mr. Schnabel's wife Marie Olatz
Garamendi, who plays Marie Lopez; Bauby's speech therapist Claude (Anne Consigny)
who helps him resurrect his inner voice on the written page -- a woman he truly loves
--
and Josephine (played by "Lady Chatterley"'s Marina Hands), whom Bauby can't
wait to break up with after a trip to Lourdes.
The one male figure Mr. Bauby admires is his own father, played with warmth and tenderness by the great Max Von Sydow. In the few minutes Mr. Von Sydow has onscreen (in an intimate moment with a fully-functioning Bauby), he shines, and in a way the scene between Papillou (Von Sydow) and Bauby is the best in the film, and the camerawork and direction of it -- including a very affectionate shot of father and son at one moment in a mirror -- is sheer brilliance. Mr. Schnabel, a life-long painter, artist and fashion designer, who has of late made impressive forages into film directing ("Basquiat" and "Before Night Falls") proves that he is no slouch at all with another very well-executed motion picture. As a painter his sense of texture, light and ethereal effects serve him so well and unlike other artists or stage directors who saturate their films, here Mr. Schnabel puts delicacy, detail, deliberation and care on a pedestal, where they belong.
"The Diving Bell And The Butterfly" (aka "Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon") is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for nudity, sexual content and some language. The film's duration is one hour and 52 minutes. The film is in French with English subtitles.
Related: Julian Schnabel Talks To The Popcorn Reel Ten Best Films Of 2007 Editorial: Abolish The "Foreign" Film Label, Now!
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