Le Scaphandre et le papillon

This is a beautiful film, in both senses of the word. The images are stunning (if a little disorienting to begin with), and the narrative jumps around quite a bit, but I can't imagine a better way in which the story could have been told. ... Full Review

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is absolute gorgeous. Mathieu Amalric plays our disabled point-of-view, affectionately called Jean-Do by his friends and family. ... Full Review

Unique, agonising and unbearably poignant, Jean-Dominique Bauby's story is one of the most remarkable imaginable. But the director's own cinematic eye is beautifully unsentimental and The Diving Bell's most deeply felt scenes are its quietest. ... Full Review

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is gentle, it is patient, it is compassionate and --....Diving Bell' a moving tale of a real-life triumph....As Schnabel tells this uncommon story of an uncommon man, he thrusts his audience into the middle of Bauby's life through inspired....concerns Schnabel, who won the Golden Globe for best director for his unique.... ... Full Review

With his one good eye, he communicated through blinking-once for yes, twice for no, and once when he heard a letter he wanted to use in a word-and dictated the novel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Bottom line: So simultaneously uplifting and heartbreaking that your chest might short-circuit, "The Diving Bell" is a movie of extremes: of unimaginable pain and unbelievable generosity; of incredible ugliness and overwhelming beauty; of fate's ability to give unendingly and then take nearly all of it away ... Full Review

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly could easily have tipped over into melodrama, but Schnabel is too much an artist to let that happen; he realizes that in order to make his hero truly substantial, and not just sympathetic, he has to present him as an ordinary man making the best of extraordinarily lousy circumstances. ... Full Review

Thumping around the country, presenting his brilliant, beautiful "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" to film societies and fans-and doing rounds of Q&As and press interviews-Schnabel pulled into Philadelphia recently. The Diving Bell" and "The Butterfly" didn't win the Palme d'Or, but Schnabel won best director, and the film-based on the memoir of Paris fashion editor Jean-Dominique Bauby-is an inspiring, heartbreaking, gorgeous work. ... Full Review

This is a classic disability story we´ve seen literally hundreds of times in film, television and print.....But this isn´t a simple tale of winning the race or accomplishing a goal;.... ... Full Review

a fantastic art-house film....his favorite film....an engaging performance....The story of Jean-Dominique attempting to make something out of life after a stroke is unforgettable..... ... Full Review

A new kind of art movie, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly fuses experimental techniques with a highly accessible and sometimes humorous narrative; it's deeply personal yet universal in its humanism. Amalric's performance in these scenes is so vivid that when the full extent of Bauby's paralysis is finally revealed, in a stark close-up some 40 minutes into the film, the shock is visceral. ... Full Review