Fri 16 + Sat 17 May
Gwe 16 + Sad 17 Mai

France/2006/112 mins/subtitled/12A. Dir: Julian Schnabel. With Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josee Croze.

The successful editor-in-chief of French Elle, known for living and loving to the full, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a massive stroke at 43. He was left paralysed and unable to speak, his only means of communication being by blinking his left eye. Having developed a painstaking alphabet, he spent a little over a year recounting his experiences in the form of a best-selling novel, which like the film, avoids turning him into a tragic hero, but shows him as a flawed, droll, irreverently funny man. Aided by a subtle and intelligent central performance, Schnabel excels at bringing the author’s internal world to the screen through rich visual poetry.

"a claustrophobic and imaginative treat" - Time Out

www.thedivingbellmovie.co.uk