I saw the film "The Lookout" last night since it is nominated for a Spirit Award for best first feature and I am voting this year. The film itself has a few exciting moments - but it's Joseph Gordon-Levitt who really carries the picture as the male lead, with Jeff Daniels who also shines as supporting male. Gordon-Levitt, whom many of us remember as the kid from "Third Rock From the Sun", impresses with a vulnerability rare amongst actors his age. I'm sure we will continue to see him shine as his career further develops.
After I saw this film, I started to consider my list for best films of 2007. I came up with a list of five - mostly foreign language and all with deeply satisfying scripts that relate on an acutely human level. I have written blog posts about 3 of them and highly recommend them all. Check them out!
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (blog entry)
- Blame it on Fidel (La Faute a Fidel) (blog entry) I'm shocked that this film was not nominated in the best foreign language category for the Oscars or the Spirit Awards.
- Two Days in Paris
- Caramel (which I just found out, will be playing at the Laemmle on Sunset and Crescent Heights) (blog entry) I don't know if this film came out in the US last year, since I saw it in Paris. It is by a Lebanese film maker and the movie is set in Beirut. Really lovely.
- The Kite Runner
Showing posts with label The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" explores the beauty of the human spirit
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is a visual gem that accomplishes a rare filmic feat of pulling in the audience and involving us in a very real and visceral experience. Everything about this movie touched a sense in me, starting with the first 10 minutes – a difficult foray into the lead character’s realization that he has just come out of a coma. The screen is filled with distorted lights and bright blurry images and creates an unsettling disorientation of images that further pull us into this new world.
The story paints the painful journey of journalist and French Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who, at 42, was left largely paralyzed with a rare condition called “locked-in syndrome”, following a stroke. The results prove frustrating for the young Bauby, as it does to the viewer, since the beginning of the film is largely seen through his perspective. The uniqueness of his condition are that two things are not paralyzed – his imagination and his memory. In fact, Bauby’s mind is still very much everything it ever was, and the only way he can communicate is through one good eye. Through the assistance of a speech therapist, he learns to not only communicate in this way, but he writes the entire book off which the film is based.
This movie had me on the verge of tears as well as on the brink of laughter. Julian Schnabel’s superb artistic eye and direction could not have found a better subject or a better screenplay for the material. It works superbly here, whereas I didn’t find it as effective in his film “Before Night Falls” which starred Javier Bardem.
The film is also perfect in French, and I fell in love with the language doubly because of the tactile quality of the film. The actor who portrays Bauby has a beautiful three-dimensional honey thick voice that begs camaraderie and empathy.
Go see this movie – Jean-Dominique Bauby’s story is a testament to the unwavering will of the human spirit and an intense yet beautiful examination into what makes us all human. I felt his experience in my bones. Please go see this movie, instead of some crap playing to the fears of another terrorized New York City. Trust me.
The story paints the painful journey of journalist and French Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who, at 42, was left largely paralyzed with a rare condition called “locked-in syndrome”, following a stroke. The results prove frustrating for the young Bauby, as it does to the viewer, since the beginning of the film is largely seen through his perspective. The uniqueness of his condition are that two things are not paralyzed – his imagination and his memory. In fact, Bauby’s mind is still very much everything it ever was, and the only way he can communicate is through one good eye. Through the assistance of a speech therapist, he learns to not only communicate in this way, but he writes the entire book off which the film is based.
This movie had me on the verge of tears as well as on the brink of laughter. Julian Schnabel’s superb artistic eye and direction could not have found a better subject or a better screenplay for the material. It works superbly here, whereas I didn’t find it as effective in his film “Before Night Falls” which starred Javier Bardem.
The film is also perfect in French, and I fell in love with the language doubly because of the tactile quality of the film. The actor who portrays Bauby has a beautiful three-dimensional honey thick voice that begs camaraderie and empathy.
Go see this movie – Jean-Dominique Bauby’s story is a testament to the unwavering will of the human spirit and an intense yet beautiful examination into what makes us all human. I felt his experience in my bones. Please go see this movie, instead of some crap playing to the fears of another terrorized New York City. Trust me.
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