A World of Pure Imagination

You must see The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

I really don’t know what else to say about this film other than it’s just excellent.

Julian Schnabel’s observation of the life of Jean-Dominique “Jean-Do” Bauby (Mathieu Almaric), the high-flying editor of French Elle and father of three (not two, as I wrote last month), a man renowned for his sense of humor and style and his joie de vivre and amorous energy – a man who, in the blink of an eye, saw his life change forever – is both fascinating and moving.

The title of the film comes from that of the book upon which it is based – a book fueled by imagination that Bauby dictated by blinking his left eye from the confining limits of his hospital bed or wheelchair following a stroke.

The event left him trapped in his body and mind, a victim of the rare “locked-in syndrome.” But it allowed him to wake up from his dream-like previous life, of which we’re told not so much, and become an inspiration.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is, for my money, the best film of the year.

It has everything you want to see at the movie theater: adversity, laughs, tears, triumph, and style. It is a piece of art that beckons attention.

My Rating ****

Photo: Miramax Films.