Chris Knipp Writing: Movies, Politics, Art


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PostPosted: Fri Jan 18, 2008 12:40 pm 
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MARIE-JOSEE CROZE IN THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

In the blink of an eye

Painter-turned-filmmaker Julian Schnabel’s brilliantly fractured acid-trip vision informs the best sequences of this film he has directed about Jean-Dominique Bauby, based on Bauby's eponymous book and veteran screenplay writer- adapter Ronald Haywood’s treatment. Bauby, "Jean-Do" to his friends and family, is at the top of his not inconsiderable game in his early forties, father of a cute boy and girl, lover, writer, and, most notably, editor of the fashion magazine Elle.

Then, as this film begins, Jean-Do wakes up from a coma trapped in his body following a massive stroke, so totally paralyzed his condition, as the head doctor tells him, is called "locked in syndrome." The English words are used by French doctors for his situation but Schnabel wisely had Haywood’s screenplay translated into French and made the film in Bauby’s language and shot it where the events took place.

Maybe nothing later can match the empathy and shock of that first awakening sequence, seen through a special "swing and tilt" lens (augmented by Schnabel’s own eyeglasses) refracting images in and out of focus and in and out of Jean-Do's limited range of view, when he first comes out of his coma, lying helpless and immobile as the doctor tells him where he is and what has happened to him. He can see only what’s in front of him. Spielberg collaborator Janusz Kaminiski did the cinematography—he’s one of many top-ranking collaborators on the film including star Matthieu Amalric whose voice-over we hear (as heard in Bauby's head: he can't speak) to make this moment intense, shocking, intensely real and strangely beautiful to us as we watch through the patient’s eyes.

Finally the intense Amalric’s big bulging eyes are about to come into their own as he impersonates the patient— except the doctors "occlude" (sew shut) one of them because it’s in danger of drying up. We see this from the helpless Jean-Do’s P.O.V. as we see everything for a while. These early scenes are stunning, accomplished, and fresh. Remember when Schnabel showed a room as Basquiat saw it stoned? This is that, in spades.

Bauby, Harwood, Schnabel—and the Berck Maritime Hospital where Baugy was actually cared for: this is the fourth principal element behind this beautiful, touching film’s success. s Bauby’s real life caregivers appear in the picture and were consulted at every stage in the shooting at the hospital on how he looked and how he was cared for: the film balances wild invention with faithfulness to fact. The fifth element is a magnificent cast, with Amalric as Bauby, as well as Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Cobigny, Marie-Josee Croze, Patrick Cervais, Niels Arestrup, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Maria Hands, Max von Sydow (as Bauby’s father) and Schnabel’s wife Olatz Lopez Garmendia.

A speech therapist teaches the paralyzed Jean-Do to "speak" by blinking his eye to choose letters. He is despairing at first: his first message is "I want to die." But he has spunk, and he also has irony, anger, energy and will. And everybody around him is extraordinarily kind. We may have cause to remember that in the UN study Michael Moore cites in Sicko, the French medical system came out number one. But family and friends rally round and behave commendably too.

So the patient gains heart and decides to write a book, even though he must still use this slow, painstaking method that he learned with his speech therapist. He already had a contract for one, but he changes the subject to this overwhelming experience he is undergoing and all the thoughts and images that flow through him, which become a kind of poem about life and about his own experiences. His publisher finds an especially kind and patient collaborator for him. And she, like the other women around him, is beautiful.

Jean-Do is trapped inside the diver's bell (an image Schnabel and Amalric enact literally). But also he’s the butterfly because in memory and imagination he can flit anywhere, over mountain ranges, over decades.

A soundtrack uses Tom Waits, "Singin’ in the Rain," The 400 Blows theme, and other elements to pull together a wild flow of sequences with emotion and allusion. It’s a bit of a letdown to see Amalric sometimes, skillfully but still theatrically, impersonating the paralyzed Jean-Do directly onscreen. The film can be forgiven for occasionally failing to transform the ordinary and banal into the extraordinary because when it’s on point, it’s so exhilarating, terrifying, and mind-blowing to watch.

Bauby was a successful man, but his success and his life were of an ordinary kind. Writing a book one painfully chosen letter at a time was not ordinary, and he rose to the occasion in the thoughtfulness and originality of his text. This was not merely coping; it was transcending. It also gave Schnabel, who was himself dealing with his mother's recent death and his father's fear of imminent demise when the project fell into his hands, a special opportunity to make a film that serves its subject faithfully and well, and at the same time is highly personal. The book was an international bestseller. This film got Schnabel the Best Director award at the Festival de Cannes this year. That's not bad. It's a remarkable accomplishment. A French language film called Le scaphandre et le papillon, celebrated at Cannes, has turned out to be one of the year's best American movies. To watch it is an extraordinary experience and not to be missed. Four Oscar nominations. Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinetography, and Film Editing.

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©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.


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