The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

NYT Critics' Pick This movie has been designated a Critic's Pick by the film reviewers of The Times.

Etienne George/Miramax

Marie-Josée Croze as Henriette in "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."

Body Unwilling, a Mind Takes Flight

Julian Schnabel has made three feature films: “Basquiat,” “Before Night Falls” and now “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” All are biographical, examining the lives of real people, and in each case the protagonist struggles with a condition of literal or metaphorical imprisonment. Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mr. Schnabel’s younger colleague in the New York art scene of the 1980s, is trapped by addiction and by his outsider status. Reinaldo Arenas, the gay Cuban poet whose memoir was the basis of “Before Night Falls,” is censored, harassed and locked up by successive dictatorships.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2007/11/30/movies/30divi.html?8mu&emc=mua1