The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

A couple of nights ago, I watched a French film called Le Scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). I had heard of this movie before. It played at the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth last winter. I remember seeing the sign for it and wanting to see it, but it might have run concurrent with Friday Night Ball. It's a shame because I would've loved to see it in a cinema setting rather than at 2 AM in my living room. That being said, you don't miss Friday Night Ball. There were people waiting for me, expecting me to show up and I couldn't skip. Also, I had only saw a sign for the movie and knew nothing about the film.

Basically, it's the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the Editor-in-Chief of Elle. Jean-Do, as his friends called him, suffered a severe stroke of some sort which rendered his entire body paralyzed except for his eyes. In the film, a doctor mentioned damage to the brain stem? that created a "locked-in syndrome." In other words, Jean-Do was essentially a vegetable. The movie opens with him in the hospital, waking up from what I imagine was a coma. The camera takes on his point of view, as it does for a significant portion of the movie, and we are exposed to all his thoughts since he cannot speak. The fascinating thing about this film was the extraordinary story of Jean-Do Bauby. This guy had the life, but lost everything. His mistress, who he left his wife and children for, never visits him until the very end. He loses his love, his career, his mobility, and his freedom. There are many times in the film where an image of Jean-Do in a diving bell (think Cuba Gooding Jr. in Men of Honor, that diving suit) relays a message of quiet desperation. Watching, I tried to put myself in his shoes and felt trapped and completely suffocated. It's amazing that this man was able to get by his own self pity and live his last days to their fullest. It's a wonderful testament to the resilience and power of the human spirit. In fact, a friend of Bauby told him: "hang onto the human inside of you and you will survive." There's a lot more I want to say on the plot and what certain imagery might mean, but I don't want to spoil the details for anyone. I really recommend giving this film a chance. You have to read subtitles, but I think it's really worth it. There is a lot of genius in this film from the way the speech therapist teaches Jean-Do to communicate to the camera work and imagery. I have more to say on the subject, but I also want to catch Top Chef so my thought will have to wait. To be continued...

More Haikus

A-Rod is a cheat.

His cousin injected him,

Most likely in butt.

Blinding white-out snow;

Leopards chase camouflaged hares,

Hunting by instinct.

Cherry blossoms bloom,

Pink petals against blue skies;

I take in the scent.

Laying on wet grass,

Taking in the sight and sounds

On Park Avenue.

That's all I have for now. I encourage you to write one or more haikus in the comments. I really enjoyed reading them after my last haiku post. Let out your inner poet.

Amazing Race and Book Report

First off, apologies for the lack of updates in the past several weeks. I've been really lazy, my computer refuses to recognize my wireless network, and I've been busy doing other stuff. I recently applied to The Amazing Race with my college roommate, Devin. If you haven't seen TAR, you should definitely check it out. It's a show where teams of two compete in a race across the globe. I was in New York City last weekend filming the audition tape with Devin. Special thanks to Kelly and Liz for helping with the filming and Ctao and Chops for their testimonials. The first episode of season 14 also aired earlier tonight. The chances of getting selected are very slim since thousands of teams send in audition tapes and applications, but I'm going to remain optimistic. If you wouldn't mind, think happy thoughts in regards to TAR for me.

Side Note: I was flipping between TAR and the NBA All-Star Game. It was somewhat entertaining, I guess. I just wanted to say though that I was disgusted that Kobe Bryant was given a share of the MVP honors for the game along with Shaq. I can see why they gave it to Shaq; it's probably his last all-star game and he's on his home court. I don't necessarily agree with it, but I can see what they're trying to do. Chris Paul had 14 points, 14 assists, 7 rebounds, 3 steals, and only 1 turnover; if you're keeping track, it's a 14:1 assist to turnover ratio. How did he not get MVP? They gave it to Kobe, who took nearly a quarter of his team's shots. The guy attempted 23 shots - once a ball hog, always a ball hog. I was also disappointed with the dunk contest, 3 point shooting contest, and all the events in general. One highlight, though, was the play of 2nd year player, Kevin Durant. He played in the Rookie/Sophomore Challenge and took 25 shots, but scored 46 points, nearly 20 more than Bryant. It makes Kobe look like a clown, at least it does to me. Another highlight was seeing how much weight Chris Tucker has gained and the amazing skills of Michael Rapaport.

Sorry Ladies, I believe he's taken.

I went snowboarding yesterday (Saturday). The conditions were pretty decent early on in the day, but the snow got very loose as the day went on. I enjoyed it though. I spent most of the time helping some friends who were snowboarding for the very first time. It felt nice to be able to help them out, but I have to admit that it got very frustrating at points. I learned how to snowboard from Devin and I hope helping me out wasn't too taxing on his patience. No falls and no concussions, so it was a decent day's work for me. I only took two runs on a couple of blue trails. No one in the group was ready to tackle a blue trail, so I was by myself. I didn't think I would like it very much, but it was actually pretty fun. Without anyone else with me, I just tried to got as fast as I could which felt thrilling. However, I still prefer the gang approach.

I started reading Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game on the bus to Boston to meet up with friends to catch a ride to New York. I had heard a lot about this book from friends. I also see it come up a lot on people's facebook profiles, under favorite books. Stalker? A little, I guess. I was very curious about the book as I'd never heard of it during my middle school days, which would be the target age group for this science fiction novel, I think. Basically, it's a story of futuristic world in which Earth appears to be in impending danger from an alien race called the Buggers. The last hope is a child named Ender Wiggins. Ender is a Third, which means that he's the third child of the family in a society that enforces a population stabilization by allowing each household only two children. And no, they're not in China. Although, with a world population of 6.6 billion people, it probably won't be long until more countries enforce reproduction limits. I wouldn't be surprised if India is next to implement such limitations. I digress. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book. I think I never heard of it before because I've never really been exposed to science fiction, which is a shame; it's great stuff. A perfect match for the nerd in me. I don't want to give too much away, but I do want to mention the type of training that Ender and some other elite soldier children receive. They play a lot of games, which is really neat - from mind games to actual combat that resembles laser tag on crack. No lie, I definitely wished I was playing in that battle games while I was reading. Anyway, let me know your thoughts on the book if you've read it. If you haven't, it's absolutely worth a read. I hear there's a sequel, which I'm looking forward to reading, but I just started David Copperfield and I'm a one book man. It's a pretty decent sized book and it's Dickens, so I'm hoping it doesn't take me too long.

It's good to be back. You're welcome for the Rapaport pic. There's more where that came from.