We’ve seen so many NYFF films, that we have to crank these out quick to stay on top of all the good films.
The Diving Bell & The Butterfly (dir. Julian Schnabel)
A lock for Best Foreign Oscar nomination (that is unless France is stupid enough to not enter it as their country’s choice), “The Diving Bell And The Butterfly” might be the best movie we’ve seen all year. The painterly and gorgeous cinematography is graceful, moving and lush, the acting is top notch (the film features two “Munich” actors – Mathieu Amalric and Marie-Josée Croze), and former artist turned film director Julian Schnabel can make painterly, poetic images out of curtains lilting on a window pane or a skirt blowing gently on a bare female leg. ‘Diving Bell’ is based on the true story of ex-French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who at 42 suffered a debilitating stroke that left him entirely paralyzed save for his left eye. He learned how to communicate via a blinking method with his eye and painstakingly wrote an entire memoir about his “trapped-in syndrome” experience dying from pneumonia about a week after the book was published. Profound, radiant, and affecting. Easily one of our favorite films of the year thus far. Trailer [A+]