Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Based on the true story of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), the film follows the last few months in Bauby's life as revealed in his memoir, dictated to a skilled therapist through the movement of one eye.

Haunting, searing and beautiful, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly traps you inside your worst nightmare, only to bring you to your senses. Best Director at Cannes 2007, Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls) and screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist), with gifted cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, Technical Grand Prize, Cannes 2007) and a very strong cast, succeed against all odds in transferring Jean-Dominique Bauby's remarkable memoir to the screen. They manage to film the story of a man afflicted by locked-in syndrome without alienating the viewer or betraying the author's painstaking fight for words. Remarkable.