The Diving Bell and the Butterfly trailer

By Wescoat December 23, 2007 9:28 PM

     Print Story

So New Yorker/French arthouse stud Julian Schnabel has made a film inspired by one of the more amazing true stories I've ever heard.

Just that trailer makes my heart go all atwitter. In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, former Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby is a crazy, live-life-to-the-fullest kind of guy, until he suffers a stroke at the age of 43. His entire body became paralyzed as a result... except his right eye, which he could still blink/wink. A nurse caring for him in the hospital realized he could actually communicate via the eye, and devised an entire system of alphabetical exchange, in which she could write down words based on the winks of his eye. In this manner, she transcribed an entire memoir from Bauby, the story of a man trapped in "locked-in syndrome." 10 days after the book was published (with 150,000 sold in the first week) Bauby died.

This is an amazing story, Schnabel's an amazing director, and I don't understand why we can't see the film in every theater in America. Where's it playing right now? Tell us!

The visionary Schnabel also won best director for Butterfly at this year's Cannes, in case you need more incentive to hunt this film down.

Tweet This Now!