Talking alphabet butterfly movie#

I think he did great because it made the movie lighter and more interesting.' 'I knew Jean-Dominique Bauby at that time because I was very often doing French Elle and he had a great sense of humor,' she explains, 'so for me it was not surprising that Mathieu did that. A former model, she worked with the real Jean-Do Bauby before his stroke. They were really my guide.'Įmmanuelle Seigner plays Bauby's lover Celine and the mother of their children. 'How did he put his hand? How much could he move his head? Which muscle could he move?' Things like that. 'Some actors in the film are, in fact, therapists that really took care of Jean-Do, so I would always ask them if I was believable. 'As we shot in the real hospital, some members of the medical crew took care of Jean-Do 10 years previously,' he explains.

He says much of the script comes directly from the memoir but even when he improvised some of the inner dialogue, the book and people with first-hand knowledge of the facts helped keep it real. 'His imagination and his memory freed him from his 'diving bell.' 'įrench actor-director Mathieu Amalric stars as Jean-Do Bauby. 'We're telling a story about his imagination and his memory and we're seeing the things because I'm basically illustrating what he is talking about,' Schnabel explains. 'One thing that Jean-Dominique Bauby said that I found extremely helpful to me as director is 'swimming up from the mist of a coma, you never get the luxury of having your dreams evaporate.' Then you start thinking about 'what is reality? What is consciousness?' I really think for this man there was no separation,' and my adult ambitions.' writes Bauby and Schnabel says he chose to film from the author's point of view, seeing the world through and communicating only with his one good eye. Julian Schnabel is best-known for his energetic and bold paintings that can confront and challenge viewers however for this, his third film, Schnabel says he needed to draw the audience into Bauby's 'locked-in' world. Two days after the book was published in 1997, 'Jean-Do' Bauby died. It is exhausting and painstaking, but after long months of work, he writes the slim volume detailing his experiences and inner thoughts. Letter by letter, the words come together. She recites the alphabet and he blinks when she says the letter he wants. However, Bauby, a journalist and editor of the French Elle magazine, is determined to be heard and a dedicated speech therapist helps him find a way. Gradually it dawns on the patient and the medical staff that he has what is now known as 'locked-in syndrome:' an active, clear mind, but an inability to communicate. In fact, the only thing he can move is his left eye. At least he thinks he has, but the stroke has left him paralyzed with no ability to speak. The doctor says 'Now try saying your name' and Jean-Dominique Bauby responds. As audiences in the United States get their first chance to see the film, Alan Silverman has this look at The Diving Bell And The Butterfly.

For more information on program availability and upcoming programs, please visit our support website.A best-selling French memoir written by a hospitalized stroke victim is the latest subject for American artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel and the result won him best director at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. This is a list of all the programs currently available to watch on ABC iview.

Talking alphabet butterfly