Must See: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Have you seen this movie? It was directed by Julian Schnabel, who once said that he’s “aiming for an emotional state, a state that people can literally walk into and be engulfed.” This film certainly had that effect on me.
I like that the trailer doesn’t give too much away, so I won’t either. I think it better allows you to be completely absorbed into the “emotional state” Schnabel describes. And as a film with a heavy emphasis on story-telling (it is narrated by the main character, Jean-Do, but I won’t say anything more about that), I liked that I was lead into the narrative without any preconceptions. Remember how when you watched the Princess Bride when you were little, you hated when they would break the story and go back to the grandfather and grandson at bedtime, because you were so into the story? This film evoked that same feeling of total immersion into a story.
It also won best director at Cannes, was nominated for four Oscars, and appeared on over twenty top-10 lists of 2007. So if the little heart-strings argument above didn’t get you, I hope the critical acclaim will…
PS– Don’t give up if at the beginning you think it’s super slow. It picks up.
