One of the most beautiful films I've seen

Julian Schnabel is one of those directors who doesn't get the love he deserves, for me Basquiat, Before Night Falls and At Eternity's Gate are all excellent films for me, he's only had one film that didn't hit for me that was Miral. But The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is his masterpiece, a story that could be downbeat and depressing ends up been uplifting and hopefully.

Mathieu Amarlic is a excellent Jean-Dominique Bauby (he looks nothing like the real Bauby), two fantastic performances from Emmanuelle Seigner as his long suffering Wife and Max Von Sydow as his father, who probably has the films best scenes. Some of the Cinematography from Speilberg regular D.P Janusz Kaminski is stunning and pretty poetic. The scene when Bauby and one of his many Girlfriends is driving through Lourdes with U2's Ultraviolet blasting out is another favorite of mine.

Sure all the women in the film are just 10/10 beauties lol, but that's not a problem. All of them are great actresses as well. This film does justice to Jean-Dominique Bauby book and makes one of the greatest films of the last 19 years for me.