The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (DVD) Reviews

note: also appears in part on Flixster and The Student Room The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is based on the French memoir of the same name by Jean-Dominique Bauby, a journalist for Elle magazine who become afflicted with Locked-In Syndrome, where the victim becomes entirely paralysed physically except for the use of their eyes, whilst ...  Read the complete review

Personally I quite enjoyed this film - well if you're able to enjoy such a film with this subject matter; but we'll come onto that later. I'll start by saying this film is entirely in French, and as a someone learning French I think it's great. The French isn't overly complex, besides the odd medical word and on the whole they speak quite slowly ...  Read the complete review

Let your imagination set you free 'I decided to stop pitying myself. Other than my eye, two things aren't paralyzed, my imagination and my memory'. If you're depressed then don't watch this movie, a truly lugubrious experience. But for some reason the European film festivals love this stuff, arty movies about paralyzed ...  Read the complete review

The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (Le scaphandre et le papillon) is a French language film made in 2007. The film went on to receive four Oscar nominations and won both Festival de Cannes and Golden Globe awards for best director as well as a Bafta award for best adapted screenplay. With so many awards and so many positive critical reviews my ...  Read the complete review

I saw Johnathan Ross praising this film very highly and decided to see what the fuss is about. It is the story of a man who suffers a stroke and awakes to find he is completely paralysed apart from one eye. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it because the subject matter seemed so depressing, although it is very sad I am glad I made the effort to ...  Read the complete review

Jean-Dominique Bauby has it all - he has the women, he is the editor of one of the most renowned fashion magazines in the world. But one day he has a horrific seizure. Apart from his left eye, he is completely paralysed. All he can do is blink. Traumatised, he decides to write a book, with the help of the nurses caring for him. He is trapped ...  Read the complete review

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a moving and compelling true story written by a man who had a stroke and could only communicate by blinking with his one working eye. It is a French film based on the book and life of the former editor of French Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby. Whats it about? As mentioned the ...  Read the complete review

WHAT IS IT ABOUT: 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' tells the true story of Jean Dominique Bauby, a French magazine editor. After living a self centred life of fast cars and illicit affairs, his world comes crashing down around him when he has a stroke and is able only to communicate by blinking his eye. WAS IT ANY ...  Read the complete review

In what must have been a career changing twist of fate for the French actor Mattieu Almaric, 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' was to have been produced by Universal Pictures in English and to have starred Johnny Depp. But Universal dawdled and pulled out, and Depp's film schedule became occupied with the third 'Pirates of the Caribbean' movie. ...  Read the complete review

Having won Festival de Cannes and Golden Globe awards for best director as well as a Bafta award for best adapted screenplay, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly promised to be a treat, although I had been warned to keep a box of tissues handy. Julian Schnabel directed this film based on the book of the same name, written by ...  Read the complete review

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is based on the book of the same name, which was meticulously dictated through the blinking of an eye. Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor in chief of Elle magazine suffered a stroke on December 9th, 1995. When he awoke from a coma, his whole body was paralyzed with the exception of his left eye and very limited ...  Read the complete review

I'm going to let you in on a little secret - I have a minor obsession with foreign films. Normally I limit it to Spanish films, as I have a basic grasp of the Spanish language, but when I saw the DVD of the french film "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly", I knew that I had to buy it. It is based on the book of the same name, ...  Read the complete review

It's not hard to see why The Diving Bell and the Butterfly gathered 4 nominations at this year's Oscars. It's precisely the sort of tale the Academy loves - the story of determination and triumph over adversity. What's harder to understand is why it failed to convert any of those nominations into awards. The Diving Bell is an extremely ...  Read the complete review