New York Film Festival: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Before getting into my review for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," first a few words about The New York Film Festival, which is now on its 45th year. This is the first time I have ever gone, but I can see huge differences between this and the festival in Toronto-and the smaller amount of movies is not the only thing. In fact, many of the movies that are playing in this festival were already in Toronto, with the exception of the opening night feature-this year was Wes Anderson's new film 'The Darjeeling Limited," which is also out in normal theatres now.

The festival shifts around Lincoln Center-the Walter Reade, the Rose Ballroom, and the Avery Fisher Hall. Whenever I go to the Lincoln Center area, I am amazed by how stuffy most of the audience is-usually filled with elderly rich people, who seem to look down upon anybody else around them. I wanted to get my seat-they assign seats here, without even giving you an option of what level you would like, many of my tickets are front row-and these two people actually asked me if I was sure that this was my row, and I could tell that they didn't want to have to move just for the sake of moving if I was wrong. I always had problems with audiences in Lincoln Center, and this film festival is bringing out the most stuffy and snobby people I have ever seen.

The theatre that most of the films are playing in-the Rose Hall-isn't anything to write home about. The seats are hard to get comfortable in, and layout isn't pleasing on the eye, and the balcony level makes it hard to get into the movie because there is so much distraction, the front row is terrible, and the only empty seats for those with front row tickets to sneak into are on the sides where you have to watch the film on a total 90 degree angle. I'm also finding it hard to find the love of film from people-Toronto had a community feel-we were all in this together-I feel more alone at these screenings than I do when I am actually in a theatre alone. It's quite sad really.

Those are my opening thoughts on the festival-regardless of how bad the people are, the venue, and the environment, the films are still good, and I've seen three winners so far. My opening selection was 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly ****

Directed by Julian Schnabel
Written by Ronald Harwood, based on the novel by Jean-Dominique Bauby

Starring:
Mathieu Amalric as Jean-Dominique Bauby
Emmanuelle Seigner as Céline Desmoulins
Marie-Josée Croze as Henriette Durand
Anne Consigny as Claude
Patrick Chesnais as Dr. Lepage
Niels Arestrup as Roussin
Olatz Lopez Garmendia as Marie Lopez

112 Minutes(Rated PG-13 for nudity, sexual content and some language. )
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It's always a good sign when the festival starts off with a masterpiece, and that is what "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"-a visual and emotional one, that caught me from the first second with its unique visual style. At least ninety percent of this film is told from the perspective of a stroke victim-literally through his eyes, which open and close, and blink, and see things blurry, and get out of focus when he tears up.

This is the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a real life person that amazed people when he actually wrote a book while under a stroke. He wakes up in the hospital and is amazed to find that he cannot move. The doctors tell him that with any luck he will be able to move and speak back to normal soon, and after much resistant, Jean-Do decides to stop pitying himself and get on with the treatment. This includes speech therapy with Henriette, played by the very pretty Marie-Josée Croze who is kind of like a French Naomi Watts. She devises a system where she reads letters of the alphabet, and whenever she gets to a letter that he wants to use, he blinks, and she writes it down, and even though it takes time she manages to communicate with him that way. And this is how he wrote his book, letter for letter, word for word, blink for blink.

At the same time we learn a little bit about Jean-Do's personal life, but only enough to get a feel for who he is. We learn about his ex-wife, who is clearly still in love with him, as well as another woman that it seems he had an affair with. This is meshed through the visitors, his phone calls, and his dreams. There is also a great performance by Max von Sydow, much better here than in "Rush Hour 3," as Jean's father, and possibly one of the most emotional scenes of the year. But these personal stories are just there to explain Jean's situation, the real focus of the film is a man who has to basically start from scratch after getting hurt. And the visuals add to pain, literally letting us go into the eyes and thoughts of a victim. There was an episode of "ER" that was similar-the only actual episode of that show I was able to sit through-which also did this, but this goes the added measure of distorting the visuals, and making you uncomfortable. A scene where his right eye gets stitched up is actually painful to watch.

Mathieu Amalric, who plays the lead role, is brilliant, and this is his best work since 2005's "King's and Queen." He really dives headfirst into this, not only playing a good looking magazine editor, but also looking his worst whenever we see what he looks like after the accident. And the ending is mildly abrupt, but the main focus of the story is done, and it's quite chilling as it is. Miramax Films has their hands on this one, and are releasing it in December. I am also quite proud of the MPAA, who rated this a PG-13, even though it does have brief male and female nudity. And even though France's official film to submit to the Oscar's was "Persepolis," and not this, this is still a masterpiece on its own-one of the most emotional and very best movies I've seen this year.