The film, aided by Amalric's pitch-perfect performance, reveals the range of Jean-Do's emotional life, his anger, joy and wry humor.
Comment
11/19/07
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
93
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
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
Click to read the article
11/16/07
It is a work of art, with no apologies for that word.
10/30/07
By delivering Bauby's story in an appropriately straightforward tone, the filmmakers behind "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" prove that engaging stories work best without artificial sweetening.
10/21/07
The remarkable story of a man almost totally incapacitated who creates a best-seller by blinking his left eye is about the creation of art as much as it is the tale of human tragedy.
10/16/07
By turns terrifying and humane and even funny.
10/16/07
Even if Schnabel’s films utilize a rolodex as burgeoning as their film’s visual inventiveness, they still do so playfully and with a sense of the fun of moviemaking that so few films of similar lineage display.
10/16/07
less cloying and superficial than other movies of its subgenre and directed with true showman's flair.
10/11/07
A classic in the literature of illness brought to the screen with all its creative juices intact, the film salutes the firepower of imagination as a life-giver and a life-sustainer.
09/30/07
A textbook example of a director prizing himself over his material.
09/18/07
...a film that's as emotionally devastating as it is engrossing.
09/17/07
Haunting and gorgeous.
09/15/07
As close to perfection as you'll get for a movie dealing with a subject matter that might seem impossible to handle in an entertaining way.
09/04/07
Schnabel's visuals are so confident, so moving, that I wished he had truly taken charge rather than being led around by a screenplay that can't cut the mustard.
09/02/07
The Sea Inside by way of Lady in the Lake.
08/21/07
From its relentless visual distortion to its wearying parade of Felliniesque fantasy sequences, Schnabel’s film wants you to know that it’s art with a capital 'A.' It’s also disability porn with a capital 'D.'
05/31/07
Imagine a Spike Jonze-Charlie Kauffman-Michel Gondry-style film but with a warm, beating heart instead of cool, detached hipster irony.
05/28/07
Boasting a beautiful, surreal-like style, this biopic of Elle's paralyzed editor continues Schnabel's exploration of misfit artists, begun in Basquiat and continued in Before Night Falls; in emotional impact, the film recalls My Left Foot and Sea Inside
05/25/07
An arresting true story and a ravishing visual creation, but the two remain separate entities that do not support one another but get in each other's way instead.
05/23/07
Most compelling in its attempts to re-create the experience of paralysis onscreen, gorgeously lensed pic morphs into a dreamlike collage of memories and fantasies, distancing the viewer somewhat from Bauby's consciousness.
05/23/07
Top CriticLatest News for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
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RT on DVD: The Golden Compass, 27 Dresses, and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
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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:
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