The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

[berko]

Watched this last night.

The story of a successful man who, after suffering a stroke, is left with 'locked in' syndrome. Locked in syndrome is caused by a stroke that affects the brain stem and causes paralysis, but leaves the mind unaffected. In medical circles, it is widely thought of as the worst possible outcome of stroke-- a fate, quite literally, worse than death.

In the case of the main character, he is only able to move his left eye and is otherwise completely paralyzed.

THe movie shows his life from his prespective and chronicles his completion of a book, 'written' by choosing letters by blinking.

Powerful, stylish movie. A movie that reminds you how good you have it without bringing you down.

Only potential dowside is that it is in French w/subtitles. Not really a bad thing as the dialog is sort of secondary anyway and is compensated by several scenes which feature gratuitous nudity.

Well worth seeing.

[MOHSHSIHd]

I have heard good things around the film dept. here. Gotta see this one.

[Fellin34]

It is absolutely amazing that this actually happened. talk about strength and determination

[Fellin34]

just read the book and liked it a lot. I couldn't find the movie in Bozeman but i want to check it out soon

[wurst]

Yeah, just watched this last week. I read a few arguments that this was the best movie of '07, not entirely sure I agree but not sure what I'd put ahead of it either. The time-jumping flashback structure is really effective for building suspense — it starts very slow, but gradually gets more intense and some of the final scenes are just unbelievably good. Shit can happen to any of us at any time.