leethomas-11621 Quintessential French movie. The director's inventiveness succeeds in bringing a fairly static book to the screen. I feared the subjective camerawork, the voice-over narration and the jumping backwards in time would spoil it but the director lets no difficulty get in his way. Other reviewers have pointed out something I was unaware of - the film takes liberties with the true story especially in its treatment of Bauby's girlfriend. (viewed 10/16)

Sameir Ali The real story of Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who had a stroke and is paralyzed. He has no control over his body except for the left eye. This is definitely an amazing cinematic experience. Almost 45 minutes of the movie in the POV of the paralyzed protagonist. This will make you to feel his helplessness and suffocation. The renowned DOP Janusz Kaminski has done a wonderful job to communicate this feeling. Director Julian Schnabel, actor Mathieu Amalric and all others made a very well impact in the movie.The movie is sad, but give you an energy and motivation to live. Watching this movie will change your views of life at least for some days. When you are so frustrated and tired of life, this is one of the films recommended.Do not miss this movie. Highly Recommended!

Python Hyena The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007): Dir: Julian Schnabel / Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Max Von Sydow, Marie-Josee Croze, Anne Consigny: Depressing yet provocative film about freedom of mind and body. It is the true story of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby whose life halts when he awakens from a coma. He can hear and understand but unable to communicate. Director Julian Schnabel does a fantastic job at emphasizing immobility. The feeling isn't pleasant even for the viewer but that is precisely why the film works. Mathieu Amalric brilliantly plays off the paralysis. He uses his eyes to indicate communication but his fate is more a relief to the audience when they would likely prefer the same thing. Emmanuelle Seigner plays the mother of his three children who sticks by him thick and thin. Max Von Sydow plays his father whose own memory is fading. He can sympathize with his son but within his own disability he is at similar loss. Marie-Josee Croze displays the patience of a social worker. Her highlight is the techniques she teaches him in his process of effective communication. The role is fairly straight forward but Croze nails it creating a scene stealing performance. Anne Consigny also makes an appearance. Film gives strong sense of being paralyzed, which makes it more effective than pleasant. Score: 8 / 10

MartinHafer "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is a difficult movie to watch. However, given the subject matter, they manage to do an excellent job. And, since it's currently on the IMDb Top 250 List (currently #243), obviously a lot of people found it to be worth seeing.When the film begins, you see what the world looks like when a man (Jean-Dominique Bauby) very, very slowly awakens for the first time in weeks. It seems he's been in a coma and this is the result of a stroke--a stroke occurring to a vibrant man who was only in his early 40s at the time. This is possibly the best part of the film and it caught my attention--the fascinating use of very unusual camera angles, focus and close-ups.After this preliminary examination is complete, one thing is obvious to the doctors---Jean-Dominque cannot talk or communicate. He THINKS he's communicating but no one can hear me and he's locked inside his broken body. Soon the doctors tell him he has something called a 'locked-in syndrome'. In other words, he might never re-learn to communicate or move--this is a horribly scary diagnosis. However, through the course of the film, he learns that he can move his one eye and with that he then learns to communicate.After working with therapists, Jean-Dominique has an unusual request--he wants his therapist to call a publisher. It seems that he (who was the real life editor of 'Elle' magazine) had an existing contract to write a book--and now he wanted to dictate his memoirs! To do this, he had to use a painfully slow methods involving blinks to spell out every word of the text! Long, complicated but, amazingly, quite possible--resulting an an actual book "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"--which also became the title of this movie.I could say more about the film but it's best to just see it yourself. I should point out that although it's listed as a French-language film on IMDb, somehow (perhaps much later) an English language dub was also made--using many of the actual voices of folks in the movie (which IS unusual). All in all, I was surprised how watchable the dub was, as I usually avoid dubs because they are done so poorly and so much of the original film is often lost. All in all, it's an exceptional film.By the way, if you DO watch the film be aware that there is some nudity (in his dreams and flashbacks) and a few of the scenes in the film are tough to watch. It's really not a kids film.