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Unconventional Butterfly Soars

Critics adore film based on paralyzed Frenchman's memoir

By Sam Gale Rosen, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 30, 2007 10:50 AM CST

(Newser) – Critics adore The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a movie based on the memoir of the paralyzed editor of French Elle. In the New Yorker, David Denby writes that the film has "some of the freest and most creative uses of the camera and some of the most daring, cruel, and heartbreaking emotional explorations that have appeared in recent movies."

The film, directed by Julian Schnabel, uses unconventional cinematography to swoop in and out of the main character's trapped consciousness. "The images are sumptuous, when they aren't claustrophobic," writes Joe Morgenstern in the Wall Street Journal. And in Rolling Stone, Peter Travers praises the director's eye and honesty: "Bogus uplift isn't in Schnabel's DNA."

[Images (4)]

[Videos (1)]

This undated photo provided by Miramax Films shows Julian Schnabel (right) directing Mathieu Amalric on the set of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." (AP Photo/Miramax Films,Etienne George) (Associated Press)

This undated photo provided by Miramax shows Mathieu Amalric, right, and Max Von Sydow in a scene from "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly." (AP Photo/Miramax Films) (Associated Press)

Film director, Julian Schnabel arrives with his wife and actress Olatz Lopez Garmendia to the New York premiere of the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Wednesday, Nov., 14, 2007. (AP Photo/Stuart... (Associated Press)

Actor Mathieu Almaric arrives to the New York premiere of the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Wednesday, Nov., 14, 2007. (AP Photo/Stuart Ramson) (Associated Press)

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Unconventional Butterfly Soars