AFI Fest 2007: Day 8
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon)
France/USA 2007
Told almost entirely from the perspective of a man whose movements are confined to blinking one eyelid, the miracle of Julian Schnabel’s new film is that it works at all. That it is also a stirring testament to the human capacity to overcome and to adapt in the face of enormous obstacles is a bonus surprise.
It’s based on the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the 43-year-old editor in chief of Elle France written after he suffered a massive stroke that left his brain functioning normally, but his body completely paralyzed. He’s essentially forced to live in a world of his own memories and imagination, but once he learns to communicate with the outside world, literally one letter of the alphabet at a time, he’s able to reconnect and share his experiences.
Hitchcock was renowned for films like Lifeboat and Rear Window that were filmed entirely within confined locations. In many ways, Schnabel’s location is a man’s head. True, like Bauby himself, Schnabel along with screenwriter Ronald Harwood and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski are liberated by Bauby’s memories and imagination, but much of the movie is taken up with Bauby’s efforts to communicate. The supporting cast frequently act directly to the camera and by extension the audience itself.
Of my two favorite scenes, one is a memory where Bauby recalls shaving his elderly father (a heart breaking Max von Sydow). It’s a simple scene bursting with affection and intimacy conveyed in a few simple gestures. The other occurs post-stroke and involves the mother of Bauby’s children (the beautiful and sad Emmanuelle Seigner) having to translate an exchange between Bauby and his most recent lover.
It’s the supporting cast (including Marie-Josée Croze as Bauby’s speech therapist) that carries the film during the scenes when Bauby is limited to nothing more than eye movements. Special mention should be made however of lead actor Mathieu Amalric who makes the most of a limiting and difficult part.
When I heard about this film, I wondered if it could be pulled off without being a TV movie-of-the-week. It worked and it turned out to be one of the nicer surprises of the festival so far.
As a special personal bonus, I found myself sitting directly behind Mr. Max von Sydow. It’s always a little exciting to see this or that celebrity but to be in the company of a true giant of cinema is more than a little thrilling even for this jaded old cynic.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is scheduled for limited release on November 30th, 2007
I have to admit I’m exhausted after the midnight screening of No Country for Old Men (review to follow perhaps after a second viewing this weekend) so I may just see one movie tonight or I might even take the night off. A day and a half remain and I’ve already hit my low target of 16 movies so we’ll see.
Filed under: Reviews
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- Review: Son of Rambow (2008) *** 1/2
- AFI Fest 2007: Day 7
- AFI Fest 2008: Day 0
“As a special personal bonus, I found myself sitting directly behind Mr. Max von Sydow.”
I hope you’re tall, Craig.
Luckily the stadium seating was steep enough to allow me to see over even a ‘giant of cinema.’
I wasn’t sure if you’d seen this film, Craig, so I went looking for an article here. :-)
Max von Sydow was wonderful and memorable in only two scenes. That’s great that you ended up sitting right behind him.
In case you didn’t notice from the excessive comments I’ve been leaving about this film, I loved it. It was one of the most amazing movies I’ve seen this year.
I wish that I’d had time to give this one a proper full review, but it was rpetty hectic in the middle of the festival and it was all I could do to keep up with what I was seeing.
It’s a remarkable film though and I’m not surprised it moved you so much.
I could listen to Max Von Sydow’s voice all day long.
I will be very upset if Max von Sydow doesn’t get a supporting nomination.
This was a lovely review and I love your description of the shaving scene. In just a few words you nailed everything that was conveyed in that short segment of film. The movie is both a work of art and a ‘triumph of the human spirit’. Pure bait for the Academy if they’re not turned off by the fact that it’s in a foreign language. Hopefully they’ll bite.
Film festivals must be overwhelming. How many movies do you see in a day? Three? Four?
You sat behind Max vin Sydow. Lucky You!!!
When I heard about the AFI festival I was so jealous!
Von Sydow is amazing! So tall and such a deep, rich voice. He got a big standing ovation afterwards.
I forgot about you and Max. That is so cool.
You called out my two favorite scenes of the film too. I had a little bit of a hard time with the movie only because I wanted to know more about the main character and who he was before the accident. I guess I didn’t see enough evidence of his past badness to fully grok his immense guilt. I also really wanted to get to know the supporting characters a bit better, including his wife and Dr Durand. His mistress was a complete mystery to me. Other than being really sexy, their relationship as shown appeared to have no appeal whatsoever. I found the whole And was he jerk to people he worked with too because none of them ever came to visit him.
The movie is a bit of a hat trick though and in that, it works immensely well. Mathieu Amalric deserves considerable praise for making a character work who only has a eyeball/eyelid with which to act in many scenes. The supporting cast are all very good. Kaminski gets praise for essentially doing the majority of the acting in the first 20 minutes or so and finding such interesting ways to convey the Jean-Do’s unique condition.
I just wish the movie had an extra 10-15 minutes of character development for me to understand the relationships better. As it was, I really enjoyed but felt it came a little short of a complete story for me.
Hopefully Alison will chime in on this one again….you may have heard she’s a bit of a fan. heh heh.
I think the scraps of information we were given about Bauby were enough for me. The glimpses we got were enough to tell us he was imperfect and they allowed his character to be a stand-in for the audience. We can apply our own lives to him and maybe feel his predicament more than we can actually intellectualize it. I’m not asserting that this is so, it’s been a little too long since the movie was fresh in my mind.