Film Features Stroke, Wins Two Golden Globe Awards

Main Category: Stroke / Neuroprotection
Article Date: 16 Jan 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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Acclaimed French film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director Award at the 65th Annual Golden Globes Sunday.

The film, directed by Julian Schnabel, is based on the autobiography of French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby suffered a brain-stem stroke that left him with Locked-In Syndrome (completely paralyzed). Despite this major adversity, his creative spirit remained intact. Bauby continued to tell a story like no other, in the most painstaking, heartrending and inspiring way imaginable: with his left eyelid.

Bauby passed away just four days after his International bestselling memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, was published, and now the book has been transformed into this feature film.

Schnabel's good friend Johnny Depp was initially going to take on the role as Bauby, but had to turn it down due to his commitment to Pirates of the Carribean. Instead, French actor Mathieu Amalric took on the role as Bauby and astounded international audiences.

National Stroke Association sponsored The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at the 2007 STARZ Denver Film Festival, where the film received raving reviews.

National Stroke Association