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Diving Bell And The Butterfly: Special Edition (The)
R4 - Australia - Warner Home Video Review written by and copyright: Cameron Murray & Noor Razzak (20th December 2008). |
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The Film
 Movies with subtitles are something that as a rule of thumb I would stay away from because I find myself losing sight of the imagery of a film and concentrating solely on the script at the bottom of the screen. Also movies that have bold claims like ‘unfathomable beauty’ also tend to be avoided as they strike me as a little pretentious. Having said that as I was given this DVD "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" or as it's known in it's original French "Le Scaphandre et le Papillon," I realised that I had a reviewers duty to watch the whole film. Which turned out to be far less tedious than I had originally dreaded, so whaddya know? The plot is a simple one but based on a true story, the editor of Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) has a stroke and becomes locked in his own body, with a syndrome called 'locked in syndrome,' basically what this means is that he is unable to speak, he movement is negligible (confined to his eyes and eyelids, but the patients brain maintains its cognitive faculties and vision and hearing is fine. This is the starting point of the story what follows is Jean-Dominique learning to live in this state and communicate again through only using his ability to blink. Jean-Dominique struggles with the depression of his situation but through the support of his nurses, physiotherapist and speech instructor he moves past this and begins to focus on dictating his book to a patient and beautiful assistant, the book of the same title as the movie. Stylistically this movie lives up to its own hype, being incredibly beautifully shot. Also shooting a large part in the first person, to make the first person seem more genuine the use of focus and framing were superb off centre enough to make you feel that you are stuck in Jean-Dominique’s body with him. When the director (Julian Schnabel) does take the camera to the more traditional third person he does so with seeming ease and grace and an eye for magnificence. The acting in this is first rate with Mathieu Amalric's acting is beautiful and touching with its sincerity. His voice acting while in French, still conveyed the desperation of his predicament. The support acting was also very well done given that for a large portion of the film, almost the entire first act, was filmed in the first person. This is a technique often used with poor results but in this particular instance the performance gave it a strength that the film would have otherwise been hard pushed to achieve in another manner. I recommend this film, obviously not if you want a light hearted romp through the French countryside, but if you are after a heart felt tale of mastering your own destiny and not letting your circumstance get the better of you then this is the film for you.
Video
Presented in a widescreen ratio of 1.78:1 this anamorphic transfer conveys the incredible cinematography excellently. The image is bold and striking, there are soft spots but this is purely aesthetic. The image features little grain, colors are well rendered especially blacks which feature hardly any noise. Skin tones appear natural and shadow detail is consistently good. There's compression flaws, no edge-enhancement and no dirt. Overall the image is splendid.
Audio
The film is presented in French in either a Dolby Digital 5.1 or Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo options. For the purposes of this review I chose to view the film with its 5.1 soundtrack. While the film contains mostly dialogue the film features some incredible sound design when the main character is dreaming or fantasising about various things. The soundtrack kicks in and works to immerse the viewer into the main character's world. Combined with the way it was shot and the sounds used, the filmmaker's managed to achieve something unique and interesting. Optional subtitles are included only in English.
Extras
Warner Brothers and Icon has released this film as 'Special Edition' and features an audio commentary, two featurettes and some bonus trailers. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is a feature-length audio commentary by the film's director Julian Schnabel. Oh boy, someone needs to inform the director how to record a commentary or at least pair him up with other members of the cast or crew to provide some filler. This was one long, drawn out and incredibly boring track. Listening to this is like pulling teeth, there's very little that the director gives away, there are long pauses and frankly he doesn't seem like an interesting enough person to warrant sitting through the movie again just to listen to. He makes a lot of observations that anyone can pick out, he doesn't go into detail and frankly it's not worth listening to. If I had recorded this track, I would have thrown it out and started over again, providing the director with useful talking points. "Submerged: The Making of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" featurette is next and runs for 12 minutes 40 seconds, this clip takes a closer look at the film's production as key cast and crew are interviewed. It's an EPK clip but with a little bit more substance the usual ones we've seen. "A Cinematic Vision" is the next featurette and which runs for 7 minutes 12 seconds, in this clip takes a closer look at the techniques the director utlised in order to put the viewer in the shoes of the main character. The camera techniques, focus, positioning etc. It's a fascinating clip that's worth checking out. Rounding out the extras are a couple of bonus trailers for: - "Paris" which runs for 2 minutes 46 seconds. - "La Vie En Rose" which runs for 47 seconds.
Overall
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