Thanks for the memories!

Absolutely Fantastic

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Quintessential French movie. The director's inventiveness succeeds in bringing a fairly static book to the screen. I feared the subjective camerawork, the voice-over narration and the jumping backwards in time would spoil it but the director lets no difficulty get in his way. Other reviewers have pointed out something I was unaware of - the film takes liberties with the true story especially in its treatment of Bauby's girlfriend. (viewed 10/16)

For some, the movie will require a fair degree of patience but it's worth it; this is an incredible story, all the more so for being a true one. It virtually forces one to think about what you would do under similar circumstances and that's not a comforting thought. The real life Jean Dominique Balby was a man of intense fortitude to come to grips with the nature of his paralysis, a rare condition called 'locked-in syndrome' that left him entirely immobile except for his left eye. Trained to communicate by blinking 'yes' or 'no' to the letters of the alphabet, Jean-Do was able to dictate a book on his experience under the attentive and patient care of his transcriber, Claude (Anne Consigny). Not only does the story reflect on the randomness of life's events in the case of Jean-Do, but also includes that of a man who Jean-Do gave up his seat on an airplane for. The plane was hijacked by terrorists and Pierre Rousin (Niels Arestrup) remained a hostage for a period of four years, thereby experiencing his own trial of solitude and tribulation. What keeps Jean-Do going are his memories and imagination, without which he would have succumbed early to a withering death. One wonders what traumatic event might have caused his condition, though a scene late in the picture reveals that it was merely a stroke that occurred while driving his son to the theater. I say merely, but the effect as we experience throughout the film was devastating. The story is entirely inspirational, though it's adherence to the facts of Jean-Do's relationship with the mother of his children and the mistress who's never shown in the picture is virtually reversed. One might take a look at the review on this board of 'edog101' for some insight into that story, one which affirms that film makers needn't tamper with the facts in order to produce a compelling movie.

The story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who learnt to communicate in spite of being paralysed in every respect save for the ability to move one eye, is remarkable. What's almost as surprising is that Julian Schnabel has been able to turn his struggle for a meaningful existence into a watchable film, steering (mostly) clear of pathos, and managing to make Jean-Do's experience comprehensible, frightening and moving (though the man himself had sadly died in the interval since the book he wrote, on which the film is based, had been completed). As it happened, Jean-Do had been successful and selfish prior to his bodily failure; the contrast between is old life and his new leavens the film without taking away its point. Overall, this is a very well judged interpretation of a difficult, horrifying, but fascinating story. And a tribute to a man who resisted his initial impulse to give up, and who, it seems, found a reason to live even in the most adverse circumstances.

I watched this movie a couple of weeks ago and I really liked it. It's about a man who has a locked-in syndrome and struggles to accept his new "him". The beginning of the movie is just SUBLIME; how the director moves us into bauby's head, so we can see through his eyes, and listen to his mind and live, therefore, the struggle of this unfortunate man, and walk along with him in his hard and long journey. And for this alone i gave it a 9/10. It is well performed and well written and well filmed. To go deeper in the movie, I liked the idea of the detachment of the soul from the body, and how bauby discovers the purest state of humans and experiences the unlimited power of the mind. This movie pushed me to think about who I really am, a soul and a mind. And to question how should i take care of this real me. It's a must watch movie.