Let Your Imagination Set You Free
by habituallychic
11 . 09 . 07While I was at the movies to see The Darjeeling Limited recently, I saw the most intriguing movie preview. It was for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, the English title of the French movie Le Scaphandre et le Papillon. The visuals were stunning and the story seemed so interesting. Even more interesting was the director, artist Julian Schnabel. I had to learn more and what I found out is nothing short of amazing.
You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face. You can build castles in Spain, steal the Golden Fleece, discover Atlantis, realize your childhood dreams and adult ambitions.
Enough rambling. My main task now is to compose the first of these bedridden travel notes so that I shall be ready when my publisher’s emissary arrives to take my dictation, letter by letter. In my head I churn over every sentence ten times, delete a word, add an adjective, and learn my text by heart, paragraph by paragraph. “
Sadly, Bauby died two days after the book was published in France but now his story continues to live on in the movie version that opens in select theaters on November 30th. I know a lot of people are put off by reading subtitles but I hope that doesn’t prevent most from seeing this beautiful film. Julian Schnabel won the prize for Best Director at the Festival de Cannes in 2007 and resisted pressure by the production company to make it in English, believing that the rich language of the book wouldn’t work as well in English, going so far as to learn French to do the film. There is an interesting interview with him on Parisvoice that is also worth checking out.
11 Comments
I’m not a fan of Julian Schnabel’s art but his movies have been divine.
I’ve been looking forward to this one for some time.
Ritchie Designs, I’m more familiar with Julian Schnabel’s art than his movies, other than Basquiat, which was brilliant. I can’t wait to see this movie. I think I might have to pick up the book as well.
The last sentence from the quote is beautiful. I am going to have to get this book – thank you for the post! Enjoy the weekend!
The trailer is beautiful. Thanks for the recommendation!
Alice, I told myself I wasn’t allowed to buy a new book until I finished Love in the Time of Cholera but I may have to break down and buy this one this weekend.
BA, the trailer is so sad and happy at the same time. It’s what got me about this movie. I can’t wait to see it!
I know that feeling about books. Sometimes I get panicky because I’ve bought too many books and they’re piling up waiting for me to read. Currently read is “Maynard and Jennica”.
I also have a weakness for recipe books so, and thanks to your blog, I recently bought Park Avenue Potluck. This weekend I am planning a little feast experimentation.
I do love the early part of Winter – perfect for cooking, reading, wrapping yourself in scarves, gloves, lingering over brunch…. You can tell I have a particularly lazy weekend on the way!
I’ll have to check out Maynard & Jennica. I’m not familiar with it.
I still have to find the Prailine Topped Sweet Potaoes recipe for you. I just to figure out where I put it or it might be easier to have my mom send it to me again 😉
I think a lazy weekend sounds great! Enjoy! I want to try to make it to a museum and a movie but who knows what will happen. Sometimes, it’s better to just go with the flow!
I can’t wait until the Darling Limited comes out here…AND I’m also really excited that there is a Julian Schnable exhibition on here at the moment that I’m going to check out next week. I’ll have to keep a look out for this movie, it sounds fascinating.
Suzy, I’m not sure I understood everything that happened in the Darjeeling Limited but it was a very intresting movie.
You must see the Julian Schnabel exhibition. I really love his work and that he has so much creativity that he makes films in addition to paintings.
HC,
You put this together so well. In case anyone is interested, I happen to have on my site right now a link to a fundraiser that benefits the profoundly disabled — it’s under give.
Courtney