Seen on: January 18, 2008

The players: Director: Julian Schnabel, Writer: Ronald Harwood, Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Consigny, Emma De Caunes, Max von Sydow

Facts of interest: "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" earned Julian Schnabel the Golden Globe for best director.

The plot: Jean-Dominique is a successful magazine editor until a stroke leaves him almost fully paralyzed.

Our quick thoughts: In a nutshell, Julian Schnabel’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is an extraordinary piece of filmmaking. Based on the novel by Jean-Dominique Bauby, the film tells the true story of a successful magazine editor whose life takes a drastic turn when a stroke leaves him fully paralyzed. Capable of using only his left eye to communicate with the outside world, he soon expresses his wish to write a memoir of his life before he became a prisoner of his own body.

Schnabel’s film is unique in the way it explores the tragic consequences of the so-called locked-in syndrome, a condition in which the patient is awake but cannot move or communicate. The first five minutes of the movie are extremely claustrophobic, showing how the patient first reacts to his new predicament. On many occasions throughout the film, Schnabel’s ingenious direction and realistic vision, and Janusz Kaminski’s flawless cinematography, permit the audience to see what the man himself sees, the people around him, his dreams and his deepest thoughts. But the film not only tells the story of a man living with the locked-in syndrome. On the contrary, the plot also comprises a selection of heartwarming flashbacks, which gives the viewers an intense insight into the protagonist’s life prior to his stroke. A must-see indeed.

Freaky quote: "I can imagine anything, anyone, anywhere, live my dreams of my childhood." - Mathieu Amalric

The final word: “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is a wonderful experiment that invites its audience to explore the tragedies of complete paralysis, digging deep into the conscience of a man whose desperate screams are mostly left unheard.