Reveals that the human capacity for life, for love, and even for joy is not dependent on circumstances, but is embedded in something far deeper and far more spiritual.
Comment
12/07/07
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
93
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:151
Fresh:140
Rotten:11
Average Rating:8.2/10
Consensus: It is staggering that this biopic about a paralyzed writer would contain such breathtaking visuals and dynamic performances. Director Julian Schnabel found illuminating ways of portraying the protagonist's "locked-in syndrome," exploring with poetic visuals the personal triumphs of this man limited by his hospital bed.
Theatrical Release:08-02-2008
Synopsis: Celebrated painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel's third feature finds him reaching new artistic heights with this audacious and personal biopic, based on the best-selling memoir of the same name.... [More]
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josee Croze, Anne Consigny
Director: Julian Schnabel
Reviews for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
While punishing to watch at times, it's something you can't quite keep your eyes off of.
12/06/07
This is a special motion picture that achieves its higher agenda of doing much more than idly plucking at a few heartstrings.
12/04/07
An intense, maddening, claustrophobic and awesomely inspiring film.
12/03/07
In a perfect match of director and subject, artist Julian Schnabel adapts the memoir by late Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby into a compelling and intense look at one man's experience with locked-in syndrome.
12/03/07
Bauby's horrific situation, and the purposefully muted reactions of the people around him...speak for themselves with spare eloquence.
12/03/07
With the help of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, director Julian Schnabel goes so far toward cinematically capturing the claustrophobic condition of his paralyzed and mute protagonist Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) that the artifice of his point-
12/02/07
Screenwriter Ronald Harwood has cracked a book largely thought unfilmable and director Julian Schnabel working with DP Janusz Kaminski has created a uniquely visual film about one of the most difficult movie subgenres, the biography of an author.
12/02/07
After I recovered from my initial horror, I was almost able to enjoy the experience of watching this discomfiting, entirely unique narrative.
12/02/07
The picture is so beautiful to look at that it's practically buoyant.
12/01/07
With the help of brilliant French actor Mathieu Amalric, Spielberg's longtime cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, and screenwriter Ronald Harwood, Schnabel has made a marvelous film that uses images with as much grace and flair as Bauby used words.
11/30/07
The best parts of the film are when the two men work together, Schnabel providing reams of unconscious images and Amalric commenting on them.
11/30/07
Yes, it's in French and it's arty (in good ways) - but I promise you won't have a more viscerally emotional experience at the movies this year.
11/30/07
In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, director Julian Schnabel and his gifted lead, Mathieu Amalric, take us on an indelible tour through the highest and lowest points of the human experience.
11/30/07
The film, based on the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, handles delicate subject matter with sensitivity and imagination.
11/30/07
Top CriticIt is the 2000 Belgian drama Thomas Est Amoureux that is really the closest in spirit to Schnabel and screenwriter Ronald Harwood's masterpiece.
11/30/07
Julian Schnabel deftly sidesteps all the traps inherent in the illness movie genre, creating a stirring movie about a man's emotional awakening that takes its immobile protagonist on a journey from boyhood to infinity.
11/30/07
Like Bauby's memoir, Schnabel and Academy Award-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood's adaptation is far from a mushy exercise in never-say-die optimism -- it's suffused with Bauby's terror and bitterness.
11/30/07
An inspiring tale of one man's triumph over adversity often devolves into a cinematic cliché, more earnest than truly moving. Thankfully, Diving Bell avoids those pitfalls.
11/30/07
The survival of the human spirit against almost insurmountable odds is nowhere illustrated more clearly than in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
11/30/07
Latest News for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
April 28, 2008:
RT on DVD: The Golden Compass, 27 Dresses, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
If you, like many others, opted out of The Golden Compass while it was in theaters, never fear; your chance to watch it at home has arrived. Then again, instead of picking up... More...
February 23, 2008:
Juno Leads Independent Spirit Winners...And Gains Momentum For Oscar Gold
The little teen pregnancy movie that could made a last-minute surge towards tomorrow's Oscars as Juno won three of its four Independent Spirit Award categories during Saturday's... More...
February 08, 2008:
Director Julian Schnabel on The Diving Bell and the Butterfly: The RT Interview
We talk to the helmer of one of this year's Cannes triumphs. More...
January 28, 2008:
There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men Top ASC, DGA Awards
Perhaps the ASC and DGA Awards aren't the flashiest ceremonies of the season, but being honored by one's peers is always a cause for celebration, so let's take a moment to... More...
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