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Diving Bell And The Butterfly  Hot
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Written by Bob Ham   
Wednesday, 21 May 2008


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Diving Bell And The Butterfly

Grade

Content Grade: A
Sound Grade: A
Extras Grade: B+
Picture Grade: A

Specs

Studio/Label: Miramax
Studio/Label Website: http://www.miramax.com
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound Options and Formats: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
Disc Length: 112 Minutes

Review

Over the past 15 years or more, visual artists and writers have been clamoring to get themselves behind the camera and make a movie. It is unfortunate that nine times out of ten, their work fails to live up to any expectations that they might have had about being able to translate their eye for color or composition and ear for dialogue into something watchable.

Every once in a while, though, that one gem finds his/her way into the director's chair and turns out a brilliant piece of cinema, one that brings all of the work they have done in the past to bear in new and exciting ways. One such person is erstwhile painter and writer Julian Schnabel.

 

The 56-year-old New Yorker has only made three films in his short directorial career, but he has managed to create some of beautiful and indelible scenes and imagery that captures the struggles and demons that follow people who create art – in the case of his three efforts thus far, a painter, a poet and a writer.

It is in the story of the latter, former fashion magazine editor turned celebrated memoirist Jean-Dominique Bauby, that Schnabel was able to find his true cinematic acumen. The film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a wonder to behold, capturing the rich imagination of Bauby, through all manner of visual feats, while still managing to tell a very moving and human tale.

The film centers on the life of Bauby after he suffered a massive stroke, leaving him paralyzed from head to toe. The only part of his body that he has any control over is his left eye and eyelid. During the course of his rehabilitation, Bauby learns to communicate via blinking; spelling out words letter by letter and, with the help of an assistant dictates his memoir (which shares its title with the film).

To help capture Bauby's life inside the diving suit his body, Schnabel and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski fill the frame with POV shots from the working eye, using split second editing and a roaming camera that drifts in and out of focus to help bring to life what the main character might have seen. It's a daring idea and one that would flummox the more timid viewer, but for those of you willing to go along with the director, the investment pays off five times over.

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Picture and Sound

A phenomenal picture and sound, which captures the inner dialog of Bauby and that of the world around him without one overpowering the other and allowing the colorful imagery to make you melt with delight.

Extras

Submerged: The Making of The Diving Bell And the Butterfly
A Cinematic Vision
Audio Commentary with director Julian Schnabel
Charlie Rose interviews Julian Schnabel
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