At the age of 43, Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Bauby used that eye to blink out his memoir one letter at a time. Hilarity ensues when flesh eating zombies storm the hospital and Bauby becomes a hero when he is able to lead the resistance...well, okay, there were no zombies. Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.
Trivia: Actor Johnny Depp had originally been set to play the lead character, Jean-Dominique Bauby. However, he dropped from the project due to scheduling conflicts (filming for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End). The script, written by Ron Harwood, was originally in English. Director Julian Schnabel convinced the studio, Pathe, to change the language to French to stay true to Bauby's life and story.
I know I had a little fun with the plot summary above but I think Mr. Bauby would approve. He said "Other than my eye, two things aren't paralyzed, my imagination and my memory." I was just using my imagination. I think this movie did a good job showing how isolated Bauby was. His body was his prison. The diving bell analogy really worked to convey that isolation. The director also did a great job with the camera. It was like you were seeing the world through Bauby's eye. It was claustrophobic to say the least.
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Welcome, Foolish Mortals!
14 years ago
3 comments:
I can't wait to get back home so I can go rent the movies you talk about on here. Not long now. This one seems very interesting and I'd see it.
Are you for real, you've just now seen Monsters, Inc?
No, but I saw it again with Noah. The list on the side is not the new movies I have seen, but just the last 25.
I loved "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", but the movie I'd rather see is "My Stroke of Insight", which is the amazing bestselling book by Dr Jill Bolte Taylor. It is an incredible story and there's a happy ending. She was a 37 year old Harvard brain scientist who had a stroke in the left half of her brain. The story is about how she fully recovered, what she learned and experienced, and it teaches a lot about how to live a better life. Her TEDTalk at TED dot com is fantastic too. It's been spread online millions of times and you'll see why!
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