'Diving Bell' is original, imaginative

You wake up in a hospital and find you cannot move. It is not a dream, a nightmarish adventure has just begun, but the path will lead into unexpected and unknown territory.

No, this is not the opening scene of the latest horror flick, but a remarkable true story in one of the best films of 2007.

People who do not think of film as an art form will have a very hard time making that point after viewing artist and filmmaker Julian Schnable's entertaining and engrossing point-of-view biopic "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly."

The French-language "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly" is a slyly funny, fact based film, told from the first person point-of-view of a man who has suffered a massive stroke that leaves his mind sharp but his body almost entirely paralyzed.

Before he wakes up in a hospital in an untenable situation, French fashion magazine Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) was a 43 year-old, charismatic businessman at the height of his career and charm. The unsentimental, womanizing Bauby has a messy personal life, with a long-time girlfriend Celine (Emmanuelle Seigner) and a new, younger mistress, and an ailing, aging father (Max Von Sydow).

Based on Bauby's own memoir, written by blinking his one good eye in code, this stroke victim is no suffering saint, but a wisecracking curmudgeon, a high-powered wheeler-dealer trapped in his worse nightmare.

His paralyzed body holds him like a diver in a diving bell but his mind and imagination still soar like a butterfly. There is self-discovery, romance, heartbreak and nothing predictable or ordinary about this tale.

The director's brilliant use of first person point of view takes us on a harrowing ride of suspense and challenge, an experience to rival any adventure film, rather than the more expected sentimental story of overcoming disability. "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly" becomes a humor filled and unpredictable adventure of a sarcastically funny and restless mind. The story has some common elements with "The Sea Inside," another fact-based story about disability, but this film's artistic approach and crusty central character make it a wholly different kind of film.

The film is as visually stunning as the approach to the story, with imaginative, gorgeous photography that opens up the film's visual horizons.

The artist/director Julian Schnabel's choice of first person point-of-view is inspired but credit also must go to the actor Mathieu Amalric who plays Bauby, a real challenge with the physical constraints of the role. Parts of the story are told as flashbacks, before the stroke and some dreamlike sequences.

Emmanuelle Seigner and the venerable Max Von Sydow are wonderful in their supporting roles, as is Marie-Josee Croze as a therapist who helps him learn to communicate.

"Diving Bell" is one of the best films of 2007, with numerous award nominations, including a win for Audience Choice and St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Award at the St. Louis International Film Festival last fall.

Schnabel garnered a Best Director Oscar nomination along with three others, although the film was unfortunately snubbed for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film nominations.

"The Diving Bell and The Butterfly" is a must-see movie, now playing at the Plaza Frontenac Cinema.