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I saw a preview of this about a month ago, my girlfriend had wanted to see it and I really didn't have much interest, to be perfectly honest.

But I was very pleasantly surprised, really. I was honestly expecting something really heavy-handed and pretentious, but after the movie started, I got really involved.

A lot of movies do this, but after like a month or so, there's a bad taste in my mouth for it (Crash, The Science of Sleep) but Diving Bell got passed the hump.

Really a great movie.

DVD April 29

One of the best, and probably my favorite film of last year, though No Countrys atheist center, No End in Sights condensing and 4 Months' constant tension are also up there. It certainly was 2007s experiential trip.

Schnabel made a few appearances on Charlie Rose. There is duplicate content across, but if you haven't seen any of them the last show is well worth watching.

Loved it. I'm usually too cynical to go for the "uplifting" stories, as they typically feed into that "if you just try hard enough, you can achieve all your dreams" crap that I have to read on countless papers by undergrads who mistakenly believe they don't have a life of grueling tedium ahead of them, but this film definitely worked for me.

Formally, yeah, the first half-hour is strongest, but the fact that it becomes more conventional after that--and frankly, I'm grateful, b/c I don't know if I could have taken another 90 mins. of that peculiar claustrophobic experience--doesn't strike me as a bad thing simply because the film is filled with those wonderful moments that combine Bauby's lyrical prose with such beautiful images.

Also, I loved the little ironic touches, esp. Jean-Pierre Cassel's double performance.

Really liked this - totally unsentimental, really engaging and extremely powerful... Raises all sorts of moral life issues, but striking with the sheer nature of the human spirit, simple and strong.... Schnabel in complete mastery of the medium, leaves enduring immutable images and sounds in the mind and memory.... And the indelible impression of Jean-Do... Contrasts with emotion twanging melodrama such as MY LEFT FOOT and INSIDE I'M DANCING aka. RORY O'SHEA WAS HERE (US title)...

Jean-Do's mistress speaks out about her portrayal in the film.

Finally saw this earlier this week. It's a really sobering account of how fragile and unpredictable the human body is. It's always a bit terrifying to be reminded of this, and the POV shots in the first half of the film are incredibly effective--a horror movie of a different kind in many ways. I'm not sure I "liked" the film, but it's certainly something that sticks in your mind for a while.

Antoine Doinel's link above about the mistress--and other articles I've read concerning her portrayal...while it doesn't totally diminish the film's stature in my eyes, it does illustrate the damage artists can do to someone's reputation, and it makes me try to figure out what was the creative justification in Schnabel's eyes for doing this. I suppose for dramatic effect, it probably works better with the change, but I still think it could have worked dramatically in a different way if they had stuck closer to "the truth" as well. It certainly seems like Florence Ben Sadoun got a raw deal in the film, while the wife/ex probably gets unjustifiably glorified.