THERE ARE MANY WAYS that you can be trapped. You could be trapped in a job you hate. You could be trapped in an unloving relationship. Or you could be literally trapped – you could be held hostage or you could be imprisoned. But perhaps more terrifying than all of these is to be trapped in your own body. To have your mental faculties left intact but to be unable to move or communicate properly……
SYNOPSIS
The story is about Jean-Dominique Bauby (played by Mathieu Amalric), a wealthy and wild living Frenchman who was editor of Elle magazine and had a life worth living. In one quick moment, it all came crashing down when he suffered a massive stroke and his entire body became paralyzed except for his left eye. Despite his condition, he authored a book by blinking his left eye-lid when a correct alphabet was uttered by a speech therapist (played by Marie-Josée Croze ). Slowly, painfully and miraculously, he writes a memoir about his life. Jean died 3 days after the book was published.
REVIEW :
From the first moments of the movie, we are placed inside Bauby's head as he awakens from a three-week coma. All the blurs from inactivity, strong light and moist tears prohibit our own clear view of the proceedings. For first 30 minutes the audiences only see what Jean sees. . The fantastic capture of real eye angle camera Movements from the vision of Jean is incredibly real. Although the filming technique of using the camera to show what Bauby hears sees, and feels is so well played that it might make some viewers claustrophobic. I know I felt a little uncomfortable. And it is this technique that helps carry the movie to greater heights than it would have if filmed from someone else's perspective. You see the world as he views it while desiring to be free of the paralyzing feeling of a sinking DIVING BELL. At other times, with his imagination, you find yourself fluttering as free as a BUTTERFLY..
It is Bauby’s sense of humor that keeps the film as light as it can be under the circumstances and his eloquence that keeps us riveted. When we finally do see him with his immobile body and his drooping lower lip, it is still a shock but we smile when he says that "I look like I came out of a vat of formaldehyde." Much of the film vividly explores the editor's imagination and the camera takes us on some wild rides that include images of Nijinsky, Empress Eugénie, Marlon Brando, 
and Jean-Do in his imagination skiing and surfing. Some of the most emotional moments occur when he greets his young children at the beach for the first time after his stroke, and flashbacks to his youth - driving with his girlfriend, shaving his father, supervising a fashion shoot, and taking his son on a trip in a new sports car.Bauby's wife Céline (Emmanuelle Seigner), whom he left for exotic girlfriend Ines (Agathe de La Fontaine), visits him in the hospital and comforts him while Ines cannot bring herself to see him, saying that she wants to remember him the way he was.
Another powerful scene is the one when Jean-Dom's father (played by Max Von Sydow) calls. There are no trite expressions of affection. There’s just a very genuine feeling of sadness that a grown man is unable to help his son. And it's kind of a relationship that has been flipped on its head. In an earlier scene we seen Jean-Dom shave his father – his dad is an invalid and can't leave his house. So now his father has to be the strong one again and is left reeling. Another reason why the film works so well is because the film doesn't try and soften the character for us. Jean-Dom looks at the breasts of his attractive female therapists, his fantasies involve such wonderful delights as eating large banquets and making love to beautiful women, and despite everything he still ends up loving someone who is unworthy of him. He's forced to change the way that he communicates, but the man inside pretty much remains the same.
Ronald Harwood's wonderful script employs Bauby as the narrator. He is humorous, poetic and entertaining and makes this potentially difficult film easy to watch. This is driven home by the cinematography of Janusz Kaminski, which is utterly inventive. Rarely has the subjective camera been so well handled: camera out of focus to express the blurring caused by tears; the fades out to black corresponding to the blinking of the Eyelid; the occasional leaning of the camera, transports the viewer into the situation of the film with ease.
All this is of course under the direction of Julian Schnabel who does a wonderful job here. His artistic sensitivities serve the film very well and, combined with Harwood's work on the script; he helps make this film the closest thing to poetry on screen that I've ever seen. It is beautiful to watch and to listen to. His editing is ingenious, truly evoking the sense of Bauby's inner eye whilst ensuring that we can move away and see the perspective of other characters.
Mathieu Almaric as Bauby is outstanding, and he bears a large responsibility for the film's success. Whether in the flashbacks and fantasies, or staring into the camera with his drooling face, frozen and yet so eloquent, or as the voice-over, as another aspect of the Jean-Do, mischievous, sardonic, despairing, lyrical, at no time in this film can Almaric's credibility be questioned . The women involved really shine also, full of emotion and compassion for this man that may or may not give it back. His speech therapist Henriette is superbly played by Marie-Josée Croze and the mother of his children Céline by Emmanuelle Seigner The real surprise, though, is the powerful small role of Bauby's father played by Max von Sydow. Pushing 80 years old, Sydow shows he still has the goods to carry a scene.
Though not paralyzed from head to toe like French fashion magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, many of us are in the "locked-in" syndrome – locked into our resentments and our fears, a rigidity that sours us on life and deep us estranged from family and friends. Julian Schnabel's masterful The Diving Bell and the Butterfly allow us to better appreciate the simple pleasures in life.A film not to be missed by anybody, this is a truly remarkable picture.
Original French Title : Scaphandre Et Le Pappilon ,Le
Director: Julian Schnabel
Cast : Mathieu Amalric,Max Von Sydow ,Marie-Josée Croze , Emmanuelle SeignerRated PG-13 for nudity, sexual content and some language
Country:
Language:
French
DVD FEATURES :Commentary track by Director Julian Schnabel
making of featurette
photo gallery
Trailer : www.youtube.com/watch?v=G69Zh7YIg8c
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