Julian Schnabel Paints The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

By Phillip Williams
URL: http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/julian_schnabel_the_diving_bell_and_the_butterfly_oscar_20080131/
In his latest picture, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, artist-moviemaker Julian Schnabel returns to familiar terrain while managing to explore a new landscape. Like his previous outings, Basquiat and Before Night Falls, the film is a biopic—the story of an artist living on the margins of life, searching for his voice. The true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, one-time editor of Elle France, The Diving Bell brings us deep into the inner life of its main character, a man who, flush with all the trappings of worldly success, is suddenly felled by a debilitating stroke.