Film Talk Friday - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

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Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner & Marie-Josee Croze
Director: Julian Schnabel
Screenplay by: Ronald Harwood
Based on the Memoir: Le scaphandre et le papillon by Jean-Dominique Bauby


This week I had the privilege to watch The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. I use the word privilege because it was such an amazing and inspiring film. It is a French film based on the autobiography written by Jean-Dominique Bauby, who was a renowned journalist and the editor in chief of French Elle Magazine. Bauby suffered a stroke and went into a coma for almost three weeks. When he awoke he was diagnosed with a rare disease locked in syndrome. With this syndrome his brain was fully competent and functional but he was paralyzed from head to toe. The only function he could perform was to blink his eyes. His left eye was bad and had to be sewn up leaving him with only his right eye. He worked with a speech therapist who worked out a way of communication with Bauby by reciting a frequency ordered alphabet. The alphabet was in the order of the most frequently used letters starting with E, S, A and R. Bauby would blink when the therapist said the letter he wanted and she would put together the words he was trying to express. Before Bauby had his stroke he had a publishing deal to write a book. He decided that he still wanted to write that book. Bauby had his therapist contact the publisher and the publisher sent out a translator to work with Bauby everyday to write his book. The translator worked with Bauby every day until his book was finished.

The film focuses on Bauby’s time in the hospital, his love life and his time before the stroke. Bauby passed away two days after his book was published of pneumonia. The book received great reviews and went on to become very successful. Once I found out this movie was based on his memoir I was just blown away of the determination and will power Bauby had. I am definitely going to go out and buy this book to read. I have a feeling it will be even more powerful than the movie. So if you can stand to read subtitles and have Netflix you need to watch this film! If you do, let me know what you think?

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Film Talk Friday Episode 4

ParaNorman (2012)
Directors: Chris Butler & Sam Fell
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee - Norman (voice), Leslie Mann, John Goodman & Anna Kendrick to name a few...
Genre: Comedy/Animated

Last night I met up with an old friend I hadn't seen in awhile. We went to go watch ParaNorman and I loved it. I have to say that it was quite dark towards the end of the film, but had a lot of funny moments where I found myself laughing out loud. Even if I was the only one in the theater laughing. It had a very talented cast of voices playing the many characters. I'm always trying to figure out who they are and I got them all except for Anna Kendrick, she was a tricky one. I don't know if it is truly a film for all ages but here is what the MPAA says: Rated PG for scary action and images, thematic elements, some rude humor and language I'll let you decide.

ParaNorman is about a little boy named, you guessed it, Norman. He has the unique ability to see and talk to ghosts that are hanging around due to unfinished business. His unique talent makes him the lucky chosen one of stopping the witch's curse that comes every year. Every year the witch wakes up from her sleep bringing the dead back with her. Norman along with his friend must find a way to stop the witch once and for all.

I love this trailer from the film that they made especially for the olympics...

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Film Talk Friday Episode 3

Swing Time (1936) Director: George Stevens
Starring: Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers
Genre: Comedy/Musical

Swing Time is about Astaire (Lucky) who leaves his performing group to head off to New York City to make some money so he can marry his Fiance. While in New York he meets Penny (Rogers) an aspiring Dancer. It isn't love at first sight at least not in Penny's eyes but they soon grow on each other and Lucky is left to choose between Penny and his Fiance. I'm sure you can guess who he chose?

Swing Time was such a fun movie to watch. Naturally the film was entertaining with the infamous duo of Astaire/Rogers singing and dancing together truly at their best. I had not watched an Astaire/Rogers film in a while and I had forgotten how beautiful Ginger Rogers was and how much chemistry they have together. The one thing I love about watching older films is that the comedy is so innocent. It is not based on sexual or dirty references like many of today's films are.

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Film Talk Friday Episode 2

Sorry, this is late. This has been a crazy week here for me. So off I go:

Title: Divorce Italian Style (1961)
Genre: Comedy / Foreign (Italy)
Director:Pietro Germi
Starring:Marcello Mastroianni (Ferdinando Cefalu), Daniela Rocca (Rosalia Cefalu), Stefania Sandrelli (Angela)

After starting this movie, I though to myself what did I get myself into. But after watching a little bit more of it I realized this movie is genuienely funny. I really enjoyed it and glad I decided to watch it.

The movie is about Baron Ferdinando who is married to Rosalia, but falls in love with his cousin Angela. At first it sounds kind of weird falling for your cousin, but it must have been acceptable when this movie was made. Anyways the movie is about the Baron who is trying to get his wife Rosalia to cheat on him so he can catch her in the act and kill her, freeing him to marry Angela. He trys to find acceptable men to coax into wooing her, until he finds one of her old flames. He is the perfect guy and still longs for Rosalia. So it didn't take long for his plan to move into action and they run away together. Since his wife left him the Baron becomes a social outcast for not chasing after her, so he decides he must find and kill her to regain his honor. Once he kills his wife he is sent to trial where he gets the minimum sentence for killing his wife because she had cheated. After he does his time he gets out to go home to his dear Angela. They marry and the movie ends, not before they show Angela playing footsies with a deck hand. This is just a brief overview of what happened in the movie, but it had some very funny parts while the Baron was trying to come up with a plan to do away with his wife. I would try and explain them but I am sure I would ruin anything funny I tried to explain!

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Film Talk Friday

I decided to do a weekly movie "talk" every Friday. Movies are one thing that I LOVE. I could sit and watch movie after movie all day if Tony would let me. My favorite genre of film is foreign film, especially Asian. Why you might ask, I have no clue. I have fell in love with so many foreign films from that country. The main thing I love about foreign film is that they are willing to show just about anything, they don't hold back from any story content. To me they have some of the best cinematography and visuals around. So you will see a lot of films on here that you probably have never heard of. But if you love film as much as I do I encourage you to watch something new, if you can stand reading subtitles. So welcome to......

Title: The Skin I Live In
Genre: Drama/Foreign (Spain)
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Antonio Banderas & Elena Anaya


At first I had no idea what to even think what this movie could be about. I assumed by the poster that it was about some girl getting plastic surgery and the many horrors that can accompany it. Boy was I completely wrong! In short, the film is about a top plastic surgeon, who through his research creates a strong synthetic skin that he tests on an un-expecting and un-willing subject. It took me awhile to really become interested in the movie, but as the story line progressed I got pulled in. The movie has a twist that I never even saw coming. I love films that surprise me because usually I can guess what is going to happen, or figure out how the movie is going to end. But not this one. I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone who actually wants to watch it for themselves, but the movie is based around revenge. I'll be honest the only reason I decided to watch this film is because quite a few people told me how good it was. If it wasn't for that I probably would have let this one slip off of the radar. The film has some strong adult content, it is NOT kid friendly! If anyone does decide to watch it let me know what you think?

Enjoy!

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