Review of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) by Michael M — 25 Jul 2013

Ranks on my list of movies I would gladly recommend to anybody, regardless of age or sex. This adaptation of Bauby's bestseller adds a beatifically surreal layer to the disquieting scenario of being 'locked-in' to your body without any means of communicating but for one motion.

.. blinking... as if your entire existence were reduced to nothing more than a morse signal released from a lone diving bell, drifting aimlessly for eternity... *ahem* Anyway, while there are moments of stark bleakness, Schnabel amazingly keeps the mood from dropping into a sluggish nightmare of serious lonnnnnnng silences and 'dumb doctor' slapstick by lackadaisically inserting the existential ideas of 'endurance' and 'corporeality' into a vivid, stupefyingly series of vinettes that transcend the nature of most "biopics" and turn into an original recreation of a rare story that longs to be told.

Also, Almaric is mystifyingly good as Bauby (not to mention.. almost all the females in this movie are fashionably French and have those Naomi Watt-esque eyes that could revive any man from the depths of despair).

5/5 Did I mention there's a bevy of French babes in this movie? WINNING.