by Iain Blair

Shared a tuna fish sandwich and fries with Julian Schnabel poolside at The Four Seasons hotel. The NY-based director and artist was bundled up against the cold but was in high spirits about his third film, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” which grabbed him the Best Director prize at Cannes this year. Miramax is giving it a big Oscar push.  Schnabel (“Basquiat,”“Before Night Falls”) said he partly chose the to tell the harrowing story of Jean-Dominique Bauby because his own parents both recently died. “It’s a universal story,” he says, although the tale of the high-flying editor of French Elle who was suddenly and completely paralyzed – except for his left eye - by a devastating stroke is unlikely to be hailed as “the feel-good movie” of the year. Shot entirely onlocation in France by two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer JanuszKaminski (“Schindler’s List,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Munich”), the film was produced by Kathleen Kennedy and top independent producer Jon Kilik (“Babel,”“Pollock,” “A Bronx Tale,”)  Schnabel talked about the ups and downs of shooting in Paris andFrance. “I wanted to shoot a key scene in this Parisian place, Le Duc, and I asked the owners if I could use the place, and they said ‘We don’t let people film in here.’ Someone told them it was me, and they were like, ‘You mean that guy who walks around with a plastic bag? Yeah, he can shoot here!’ And I like to eat, so it was perfect.” Schnabel says “shooting in France is pretty easy, generally. The authorities are very helpful tho’ there’s lots of red tape to deal with.” The artist ended up “living in Paris for a year” while he made the film. Pas mal.

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