The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
There are certain films when I ask the question, “was that a good story or a good film?” certain subjects just inherently outweigh the storytelling (the editing, the camera work, etc) as long as the filmmakers basically get out of the way, they’ll have a decent movie. I asked this about the Diving Bell and the Butterfly, but I’ve decided that it was not only a great story but a great film. To me there were two important choices made by the film’s director. The first was to shoot the film from the point of view of the paralyzed Jean Do. The second important decision was to not shoot the entire movie from this perspective, lifting off Diving Bell the chore of being a gimmick film. The camera goes where it needs to be. Point of view for the critical opening scenes to solidify the claustrophobia, then increasingly objective as not to smother us with it.
