The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Poster
92
metacriticBased on 36 Critics
83
Based on 193 Users

Release Date: December 19th, 2007

PG-13|1 hr 54 min

Plot Summary
Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), editor-in-chief of French fashion bible Elle magazine, has a devastating stroke at age 43. The damage to his brain stem results in locked-in syndrome, with which he is almost completely paralyzed and only able to communicate by blinking an eye. Bauby painstakingly dictates his memoir via the only means of expression left to him.

Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny, Patrick Chesnais, Niels Arestrup, Olatz Lopez Garmendia, Jean-Pierre Cassel

Director: Julian Schnabel

Genres: Drama, Biography

Production Co: Canal+

Distributors: Miramax Films

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  • 100
    Joe MorgensternWall Street Journal

    The movie has done what those who've cherished the book might have thought impossible -- intensified its singular beauty by roving as free and fearlessly as Bauby's mind did. show more

  • 88
    Carrie RickeyPhiladelphia Inquirer

    The film is more than laborious eye-blinking - it's also dazzling visually, its potent imagery conjured by cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. But finally, Diving Bell is about something imperceptible: consciousness. show more

  • 100
    Ray BennettThe Hollywood Reporter

    Director Julian Schnabel and screenwriter Ronald Harwood have performed a small miracle in adapting for the screen Jean-Dominique Bauby's autobiography The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. show more

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