The story has been told thousands of times. The original novel once became a hot topic, and Zulian adapted it into a movie, which has won awards at major film festivals one after another. Readers who haven't read the book will not be unfamiliar with the plot of the movie - the plot is originally a sideline.
The works can win awards again and again, probably because of a sincerity. As soon as the film opens, he sees the world through a subjective lens—a limited view of the ward, doctors stand in front of them, approach the camera one by one, and tell the patient about his condition. Under the subjective lens, as seen from the eyes of a patient who has just woken up, the picture is unrealistic, leaving the audience in a limited field of vision like the protagonist.
The movie continues to advance and the story unfolds. Bauby's inner monologue leads the plot and the audience's mood, where he can't move, like a body trapped in a diving bell, and a butterfly-like mind flying freely, bringing out the vast world. with the past and future. The most successful aspect of the film is that there are no exciting plots, no climax designs, no exaggerated scenes, no puzzle-solving scenes, only true monologues. Bauby is sometimes frivolous, sometimes naughty, sometimes angry and sometimes Excited emotions have become the real subject of this film, and the film also requires the audience to calm down and savor the charm.
If art has boundaries, then words and images are definitely not isolated media. Whether novels or movies, there is a sincere emotion that attracts readers and audiences. As a director, Zulian is a creative expert in different media.
Since his first solo exhibition in 1975, Zulian, a master of contemporary art (of course, his first solo exhibition in New York in 1979 was what really brought him to the international stage), his creations are no longer divided into mediums. film, but can not help but think of his contemporary art.
Zulian's outstanding works in the 1980s, especially the portraits collaged with countless broken plates, the shock brought by the heavy texture, and the later changes in style, gradually introverted and indifferent brushstrokes, are also similar to his films. matching place. The author has not seen his first movie "Basquiat", but in this biography of the black graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Basquiat himself is a very legendary figure, and there are many important figures in the art world. With the participation of high-level characters, just looking at the card surface, the heavy texture is like his early paintings.
The second film, "Before Night Falls," based on the autobiography of the same name by the Cuban exiled poet Reinaldo Arenas, is equally wild. The characters selected in the two films are also very legendary, telling more about the relationship between the protagonist and the outside world. The first two films, from the characters to the images, were full of excitement. When I came to "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", it was also a biography of a character and was also adapted from real events. The director's thinking about life changed from intense to introspection. .
Basquiat, who became famous too quickly, was addicted to the sea of poison and fell into delusions all day long. The death of his close friend Andy Warhol made him cut off the only connection with this world; Reinaldo Arenas was tortured by political persecution and AIDS; Bauby's predicament is more pure, he is paralyzed and unable to move.
From the objective environment to the physical limitations, in this new work, Zulian also thinks more purely about spiritual issues. Butterflies are free. Even if the whole body cannot move, as long as they can think freely, people are free. But the protagonist wrote the autobiography "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" with the blink of an eye in this environment. Is it the birth of art in the contradiction between freedom and trapping?
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