WALL-E and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
I recently watched two films whose excellence reminded me once again of the possibilities of movies. One was a big budget Disney/Pixar production and one was a low budget French movie. Both were excellent.
Andrew Stanton's WALL-E didn't interest me when it came out this summer. To me it looked like a remake of Short Circuit. Remember "Number 5 is alive!"? How many movies have we already seen about robots falling in love? Remember Heartbeeps with Andy Kauffman and Bernadette Peters? Blegh! So I didn't go see the movie during it's initial run this summer. However, I began to notice that many of the reviews I read were saying it was the best movie of the summer and even that it should be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars this spring. I became intrigued, and I went to see it at the dollar movies. My seat was uncomfortable, the screaming baby in front of me needed his diaper changed, and I sat, entranced, by this movie. It is a delightful, sophisticated, blend of romance and satire with allusions to the science fiction movies of the seventies, to Hello Dolly, to 2001: A Space Odyssey and to Charlie Chaplin. The first half of the movie is virtually silent, but the clever filmmakers give us visual clues to fill us in on what has happened to WALL-E and his world. I won't waste time and space here with a plot summary, but let me tell you that WALL-E is endlessly inventive, deeply romantic, and well worth your time.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells the true story of Jean Bauby, the editor of French Elle magazine, who suffers a catastrophic stroke and becomes the victim of "locked-in syndrome" meaning he is totally paralyzed with the exception of one eye which he blinks in response to a speech therapist who reads him the letters of the alphabet. Using this painstaking, tortuous method, he writes a book about his experiences called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The movie beautifully represents the world from the view of a man who can only use one eye, and the director, 80s painter and tireless self-promoter, Julian Schnabel uses images (butterflies, glaciers melting) that should seem like cliches, but that are somehow made new and beautiful through his vision. Or is it his? It is hard for the average film goer to know how much of the movie is Schnabel's vision, or how much is Janusz Kaminski's, the great cinematographer, who has photographed of all of Speilberg's movies since the early nineties. I haven't seen such effective use of lighting and editing since Traffic. The movie is in French, which is probably one reason it only made $5 million dollars in its theatrical release. I'm sure the movie is out now on DVD, and it would be a great rental or even better purchase. Seek it out!
I recently watched two films whose excellence reminded me once again of the possibilities of movies. One was a big budget Disney/Pixar production and one was a low budget French movie. Both were excellent.
Andrew Stanton's WALL-E didn't interest me when it came out this summer. To me it looked like a remake of Short Circuit. Remember "Number 5 is alive!"? How many movies have we already seen about robots falling in love? Remember Heartbeeps with Andy Kauffman and Bernadette Peters? Blegh! So I didn't go see the movie during it's initial run this summer. However, I began to notice that many of the reviews I read were saying it was the best movie of the summer and even that it should be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars this spring. I became intrigued, and I went to see it at the dollar movies. My seat was uncomfortable, the screaming baby in front of me needed his diaper changed, and I sat, entranced, by this movie. It is a delightful, sophisticated, blend of romance and satire with allusions to the science fiction movies of the seventies, to Hello Dolly, to 2001: A Space Odyssey and to Charlie Chaplin. The first half of the movie is virtually silent, but the clever filmmakers give us visual clues to fill us in on what has happened to WALL-E and his world. I won't waste time and space here with a plot summary, but let me tell you that WALL-E is endlessly inventive, deeply romantic, and well worth your time.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells the true story of Jean Bauby, the editor of French Elle magazine, who suffers a catastrophic stroke and becomes the victim of "locked-in syndrome" meaning he is totally paralyzed with the exception of one eye which he blinks in response to a speech therapist who reads him the letters of the alphabet. Using this painstaking, tortuous method, he writes a book about his experiences called The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The movie beautifully represents the world from the view of a man who can only use one eye, and the director, 80s painter and tireless self-promoter, Julian Schnabel uses images (butterflies, glaciers melting) that should seem like cliches, but that are somehow made new and beautiful through his vision. Or is it his? It is hard for the average film goer to know how much of the movie is Schnabel's vision, or how much is Janusz Kaminski's, the great cinematographer, who has photographed of all of Speilberg's movies since the early nineties. I haven't seen such effective use of lighting and editing since Traffic. The movie is in French, which is probably one reason it only made $5 million dollars in its theatrical release. I'm sure the movie is out now on DVD, and it would be a great rental or even better purchase. Seek it out!
posted by BVB. at 7:22 AM
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