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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Apr 5, 2016 17:31:09 GMT -5
The Diving Bell and the ButterflyDir. Julian Schnabel Premiered at Cannes May 22, 2007 This movie is a nightmare. A good movie, but a nightmare nonetheless. A true story, Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Almaric), editor of the fashion magazine Elle, experiences what seems to be a stroke during a weekend visit to his children. In actuality, his condition is much worse; he has lost the use of his brainstem, and can only communicate by blinking his left eye. Trapped in a useless body in the far corner of Nord Pas-de-Calais, he nonetheless uses his limited ability to dictate a book on the experience. Directed by American painter and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is at once an inspiring and horrifying window into the fate of a talented and charming man, but nonetheless someone who would not be known by name if he had not made the incredible effort to express his experience. Schnabel occasionally lapses into haute-cinema randomness and it’s not my kind of movie overall, but I can’t say it didn’t have an effect. Sign this was made in 2007: The soundtrack? Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography? I’m not sure, but definitely something. Additional Notes
- Jean-Do’s father is played by Max Von Sydow. How many languages does he speak anyway?
- Two men from the phone company make a joke at Jean-Do’s expense. Henriette is offended, but Jean-Do thinks it’s funny.
- I once saw Matthew Almaric on the Paris Métro. I’ve also seen notable people on the New York City Subway. I’ve yet to see anyone important riding the Metro in Los Angeles, though that’s more of a commuter system, and I did once share the inaugural Expo Line train with Samuel L. Jackson (though I was not aware of it at the time). Get on it, LA.
Next Time: Persepolis
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Post by Jean-Luc Lemur on Apr 6, 2016 12:08:18 GMT -5
Two things come to mind as to why this feel like it’s from 2007:
—Schnabel and the art world/highbrow connections. I feel like in the late Bush years there was a fair amount of bleedthrough from the high art world into higher culture, which really reduced in the Obama era for a variety of reasons: contraction in the modern art market with the recession, then as it rebounded a feeling of greater distance from culture as a whole due to the increased focus on inequality, and probably greater progressivity of mass culture, which reduced the punch of a lot of art (which was much more culturally liberal in the mid-2000s; the relative inattention to stuff like class also played a role here too).
—It’s an prime example of this era’s flavor of indie-sentimental sincerity.
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Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Apr 6, 2016 12:14:19 GMT -5
Two things come to mind as to why this feel like it’s from 2007: —Schnabel and the art world/highbrow connections. I feel like in the late Bush years there was a fair amount of bleedthrough from the high art world into higher culture, which really reduced in the Obama era for a variety of reasons: contraction in the modern art market with the recession, then as it rebounded a feeling of greater distance from culture as a whole due to the increased focus on inequality, and probably greater progressivity of mass culture, which reduced the punch of a lot of art (which was much more culturally liberal in the mid-2000s; the relative inattention to stuff like class also played a role here too). —It’s an prime example of this era’s flavor of indie-sentimental sincerity. Those are two great examples that I couldn't possibly have expressed just from watching. In pointing out period-specific touches, I usually steer clear of things like the development or production, because you could say any movie was made in 2097 because X was in it or directed it. But this seems like an exception. |
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