only magazine

↵ home

VIFF | DAY NINE

By only

Friday October 5, 2007

ONLY PICK: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

What if you were the editor of a world famous magazine who had everything going for you who then suffered an massive and unexpected stoke leaving you almost totally paralyzed? What if the only way you could communicate was through the blinking of one of your eyes? Would you want to die? Possibly. Or you might decide to write and edit a story all in your head and have it transcribed by a nurse who deciphers your blinks into words, and then die two days after it gets published. True story. In 1995 French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor of ELLE when a stroke left him paralyzed except for his ability to blink his left eye. The story he wrote (by blinking one letter at a time) is called the “Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and it’s about someone who suffers from what is known as “locked-in syndrome”. What could have been a totally depressing film amazingly manages to turn out, much like Jean-Dominique’s story, to be a rich and inspiring story of the power about the human spirit and the dedication of friends to support life. Oh don’t worry, it’s tragic, but Mathieu Amalric is absolutely amazing as Bauby and director Julian Schnabel crafts a delicate and touching film that washes in and out of the story itself filling us with wonder and awe at the painful yet inescapable need for connection. Bring a tissue.–AOT


10:30 am GR5 – Wonders Are Many:The Making of Doctor Atomic or p.188
12:30 pm GR2 – Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe
04:15 pm GR6 – Manda Bala
06:20 pm GR4 – My Kid Could Paint That
08:45 pm GR5 – Banished or p.168
09:30 pm GR1 – Toi or p.108
09:30 pm GR7 – The Diving Bell and the Butterfly or p.150


Location Guide: GR1,2,3,4,5,6,7=Granville 7 | VCT=Vancity Theatre | PCP=Pacific Cinematheque | RID=Ridge