The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel's adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's book is an incredibly moving film about immobility, a remarkably uplifting portrait of a paralyzed man who learns to communicate by using the one part of his body that still functions—his left eye, which he blinks to indicate the letters he wants to transcribe. Bauby—an influential magazine editor who suffered a stroke during his early 40s that left him with a fully functioning mind trapped in a totally incapacitated body—used that laborious dictation process to produce his memoir. Schnabel's film is notable not only for the varied visual devices it uses to tell a story that on the face of it is decidedly not cinematic, but also for chronicling Bauby's journey from suicidal despair over his condition to grudging acceptance (and, finally, intellectual and spiritual regeneration through the exercise of his imagination), without becoming mawkish or melodramatic. The superb cast includes Mathieu Amalric as Bauby and the legendary Max von Sydow as his housebound father, who can converse with his son only in halting telephone calls. Not a calculating tearjerker but rather a marvelously rich and fluid evocation of Bauby's extraordinary interior life, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is highly recommended. Editor's Choice. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentary by director Julian Schnabel, an interview with Schnabel by Charlie Rose (21 min.), a 13-minute “Submerged” making-of featurette, “A Cinematic Vision” production featurette (7 min.), and trailers. Bottom line: a fine extras package for one of 2007's best films.] (F. Swietek)