Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Jason watches "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"

And as a result, I've now seen every best director Oscar nominee.

Many people have written great things about this movie, so I'll keep this brief. It's an amazing true story, about a man who suffers a stroke and "locked-in" syndrome. He can only move one eye, but dictates an entire book by blinking. His assistant recites the alphabet, and he blinks at the letter he wants (if nothing else, you should learn the French alphabet by watching this movie). It's a gutsy decision to shoot a lot of the movie (especially the beginning parts) from his point of view (an immobile guy who can't even focus well). In fact, it's pretty frustrating for a while, and I found myself hoping the whole movie wouldn't be like that. Fortunately, it isn't. But then I started missing his interior monologue, which is possibly the best part of the movie.

All in all, it feels like a very good semi-experimental festival film (i.e., a little pretentious, but more or less deserving of its self-praise) that somehow made it into a general release. I felt somewhat the same way about "Atonement". I wonder if that's a real trend.

No comments: