<\/p>\n
Le Scaphandre et le papillon <\/em>or, in English, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly<\/em>, has also just made my top ten list for 2007.<\/p>\n Directed by a biopic master (and artist) Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls<\/em>) this current film is all about Schnabel\u2019s ability to create perspective and\u00a0communicate texture of life. It is sacramental in this way because it is an external manifestation of an inner reality comprised of a man\u2019s memory and imagination.<\/p>\n Jean-Dominique Bauby (here played by Mathieu Amalric; Munich<\/em>) was\u00a0an editor\/journilist for Elle <\/em>magazine when in 1995 at the age of 43, he had a massive stroke that completely impaired his brain stem leaving him with \u201clocked in syndrome\u201d.<\/p>\n Schnabel has interpreted Bauby\u2019s memoirs (dictated by blinking his left eye when the person taking the dictation would say the correct letter) in a way that makes the audience feel Bauby drowning in a sea of unknowing, navigating a life trapped within, and soar with him as his imagination breaks free.<\/p>\n Bauby died about ten days after his memoir was published in 1997.<\/p>\n Bauby was no saint before his stroke. Was he after? It will depend on your definition of holiness. There are many aspects of this film that I love, but the moment Bauby chooses to live, even locked in as he was, touched me profoundly. Isn\u2019t it one of life\u2019s lessons: to change the things you can (and he did), to accept the things you cannot (and he did) and to have the wisdom to know the difference \u2013 and this he certainly learned.<\/p>\n Would that we all reach Bauby\u2019s serenity the way Julian Schnabel presents it through the film. Awesome.<\/p>\n Another top ten film for 2007.<\/p>\n