Based on a true story of a French man who suffered a stroke and, after 20 days in a coma, awoke having "locked-in syndrome," in which he could hear, comprehend, think, etc. but his body was completely paralyzed, with the exception of one eye/eyelid.
This film and story is pretty damn amazing; also very depressing. Concepts like being "locked in" terrify me.
It's an extremely rare condition though, shouldn't worry yourself.
Yes, good film, what was upsetting to me was that just as he was starting to get feeling and so on back, [SPOILER - highlight to read]: he dies of complications from Pneumonia!
I'm about halfway through it right now. I picked it up soon after watching the film. The book is equally good, but in a different way. It's a memoir, so it's less a story and more thoughts and reflections of Jean-Dominique Bauby as he has locked-in syndrome. It's completely amazing to me how this guy kept a sense of humor/any motivation to do anything with this disorder. I would probably be self-pitying and depressed 100 percent of the time. The book and movie both demonstrate the utter power and importance of the mind, imagination, etc.
Absolutely brilliant film, saw it a while back and was stunned. The main actor was astounding and I loved how the first 30 minutes or so were filmed almost wholly from his POV.
I finished the memoir; it was also very good/moving. I was surprised by the quality of Bauby's writing too, I mean, I know he was the editor of Elle, so good writing makes sense, but nonetheless, he was very poetic at times.
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Jun 12th, 2009 12:26 AM
