"I am probably the only person watching this right now that really knows just how accurate the world looks."
I couldn't help thinking this over and over as the opening sequence of this new French film slowly came into focus for viewers at the Lakeshore theatre. Directed by Julian Schnabel and adapted from the book of the same name " Le Scaphandre et le papillon, this moving film plots the remaning days of former Elle editor Jean- Dominique Bauby after he suffers a massive stroke and becomes confined not only to his wheel chair or bed, but to the deadweight of his useless body.
Once a well-loved playboy and doting father, Bauby's descent into complete paralysis, and thus the depths of his mind, is tracked in this 112 minute visual dialogue of life after stroke.
Bauby is only 43 when stroke takes his freedom during a joy-ride with his son, and at the film's end, is only 10 days past publication of his memoir when pneumonia takes his life. The use of color, blurred images and jarred movements accurately depicts those first few days of hospital life post-stroke, and several times during the film I was moved to tears while remembering my own hospital bed awakening.
For Bauby-- a man intent on rewriting the Count of Monte Cristo-- the irony of admiration and invincibility are one and the same, as he becomes known as one of two cases of "locked-in syndrome." Able to communicate using only his left eye, he and a speech therapist devise an alphabetical system of reading/response for he and other to utilize in communication.
Although the cinematography is tunning and the visual representations of Bauby's new life are impressive, this film is remarkable becuase of the determination and dedication it shows during Bauby's most challenging times.
I know what it's like to go from high-living, invincible playboy (ok, chic chick) to bottom-of-the-barrel low, and I myself, know that I could not have done what Bauby did. the movie's tagline is "let your imagination set you free," and while I think that's lovely, I know that trapped in my own mind, in those first days, I was far from free or even able to imagine anything but death and my own pitiful existance. I left the theatre not quite in tears, but emotionall charged. I happen to be working on a book of my own, also about my experience, and even if it's not the hit that Bauby's has been (c'mon Oprah!!), I think that the writing of my experience is the thing that will finally set me free. It worked, if eventually only in death for Bauby.
Once a well-loved playboy and doting father, Bauby's descent into complete paralysis, and thus the depths of his mind, is tracked in this 112 minute visual dialogue of life after stroke.
Bauby is only 43 when stroke takes his freedom during a joy-ride with his son, and at the film's end, is only 10 days past publication of his memoir when pneumonia takes his life. The use of color, blurred images and jarred movements accurately depicts those first few days of hospital life post-stroke, and several times during the film I was moved to tears while remembering my own hospital bed awakening.
For Bauby-- a man intent on rewriting the Count of Monte Cristo-- the irony of admiration and invincibility are one and the same, as he becomes known as one of two cases of "locked-in syndrome." Able to communicate using only his left eye, he and a speech therapist devise an alphabetical system of reading/response for he and other to utilize in communication.
Although the cinematography is tunning and the visual representations of Bauby's new life are impressive, this film is remarkable becuase of the determination and dedication it shows during Bauby's most challenging times.
I know what it's like to go from high-living, invincible playboy (ok, chic chick) to bottom-of-the-barrel low, and I myself, know that I could not have done what Bauby did. the movie's tagline is "let your imagination set you free," and while I think that's lovely, I know that trapped in my own mind, in those first days, I was far from free or even able to imagine anything but death and my own pitiful existance. I left the theatre not quite in tears, but emotionall charged. I happen to be working on a book of my own, also about my experience, and even if it's not the hit that Bauby's has been (c'mon Oprah!!), I think that the writing of my experience is the thing that will finally set me free. It worked, if eventually only in death for Bauby.
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