Based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir of life after a debiliting stroke, this film by Julian Schnabel shows how he awoke from a coma finding that he was almost completely paralyzed except for his left eye. Working with a speach therapist he begins communicating with people by blinking his left eye, indicating each letter. Bauby had been editor of the French fashion magazine Elle. He had a deal to write a book before his accident so he decides he will still write a book. The story of writing the book is mixed with recollections of his life up until his stroke. One of the most poignant moments in the film is when Bauby recollects shaving his father who is confined to his own apartment because he is too frail to use the stairs. In another scene, the father, played by Max Von Sydow, weeps when he realizes during a phone call to the hospital, that Bauby can't answer back. Bauby finished his book and died of pneumonia ten days after it was published. He is played in the movie by Mathieu Amalric and the movie was filmed, in part, at the hospital where Bauby stayed after his stroke.
