Tuesday, August 30, 2011
LOCKED IN
Today's film was Julian Schnabel's, NYTimes Critics' Pick
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
I don't know why it took so long for me to get this. I was a little frightened of it, I think.
But, having seen it, I feel exalted.
It is a wonderful film. Jean-Domnique Bauby, the editor of Elle magazine, is locked into a stroke. He can only move his left eye.
He cannot even kill himself.
He writes a book. Which is this movie.
Mathieu Amalric, and old favorite, plays Bauby perfectly. I just saw him the other day in the Mesrin film. Yesterday I saw Niels Arestrup who appears here as the man who took Bauby's seat on a plane which was highjacked to Iran where he was imprisoned for four years. He has some advice for Barby. Von Sydow makes an appearance as Barby's father. Wonderful between the two.
This is a very emotional film. Eyes are wet throughout not out of sadness but out of plain empathy and wonderment.
It is a clear 5 out of Netflix5. It missed the Oscar by a hair but I gave it the best score I could.
I am watching Schnabel's two other films, I have seen one, over the coming days. What a guy.
Labels: films
