The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

 Jean-Dominique Bauby: Other than my eye, two things aren't paralyzed, my imagination and my memory
I saw it last night and I can't stop thinking of it. It is a totally engrossing film about a man in the extraordinary tragic situation but it is a life-confirming, profound and even optimistic cinematic experience, one of the best from last year and very close to the top. Never before (or at least I can't recall) has sound of silence been captured on the screen with such artistry, humanity, appreciation for every moment of life no matter how unbearable it could become. As long as our memory and imagination are not paralyzed and could take us anywhere in this world, we are alive. For the painter turned Film Director, Julian Schnabel, the film was his way to cope with the horrifying fear of death and with the loss of his father. I believe he succeeded admirably. I simply love this film. It takes us to the mind of the completely paralyzed man, makes us feel what he feels, see what he sees with his only alive left eye, and it is not depressing or manipulative, on the contrary - it is honest, brave, beautiful, it makes you smile a few times, and it is very moving.
May 15, 2008

 Inspiring story of triumph of the human will.
The Editor of Elle magazine suffered a massive stroke in his early 40's, landing in a coma. When he regains consciousness, he finds himself unable to speak and suffering from a rare "Lock In Syndrome." He trades his prior life as a bon vivant "playah" to one of a helpless person who cannot do even the most basic things for himself.

With the help of patient nurses and therapists, however, he learns to communicate slowly by blinking his eyes. Eventually, he "dictates" his memoir "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" - using this slow and painstaking technique.

Many viewers may opt to pass on this movie, either because of the foreign film subtitles or because of the ostensibly grim subject matter. That would be a mistake. Though the Grim Reaper prevails eventually, the protagonist finds some measure of transcendence through his literary memoir, which survives his life on earth.

Extremely well-done!

The movie raises many questions, not the least of which is: What kind of health plan was this guy on?! I want to get on THAT HMO. Teams of doctors and specialists swarm over him. His therapists are all young, hot looking women. Sweet!

Can you imagine if the guy had had the same calamity befall him in the USA? If he was lucky, some Wanda the Warthog nurse might come in to check and rotate him a few times a day. The docs would be by at 5:45 AM for their allotted ten minutes per patient. After 45 days, the HMO would be shoving him out of that seaside rehab facility - sorry, policy limits are up!! Maybe it's the socialized medicine system in France.
May 11, 2008

 An Inspired Wonder Called "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly"


After reading the former French Elle Magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir, THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, when it was first published in 1997, I couldn't help wondering if it would be possible for anyone to make a decent movie out of it. After watching the film directed by Julian Schnabel, with a screenplay by Ronald Howard, I was awestruck to acknowledge that not only had they made a decent film, but a gorgeous and phenomenal one.

It makes sense that The Diving Bell and the Butterfly should shine on the big screen like the huge glowing miracle that it is because the fact that Bauby even "wrote" his book at all was itself nothing less than a king-sized miracle. A major stroke in his brain stem left him paralyzed with locked-in syndrome, a condition in which he was fully conscious but unable to move any part of his body except his left eye.

Whereas the shock of finding oneself in such a torturous state might have caused many to shut down completely, Bauby rose to the occasion within himself by the sheer power of will, spirit, and the loving compassion of others. His body, he noted, may have become like a heavy diving suit that weighed him down, but his mind became freedom personified, like a butterfly that floats at will through realms of intellect, memory, and imagination. Harnessing the resources at hand, he learned to dictate by indicating individual letters with the blink of an eye and managed to compose a small masterpiece

Actor and director Mathieu Amalric plays Bauby with deeply attractive humanity. Viewers first meet him from inside his head, so to speak, as he begins to regain consciousness and doctors gather to explain what has happened. Once the unsettling fact of his paralysis is painfully established, we move with the stream of Bauby's consciousness back and forth through scenes of high-energy photo shoots at Elle Magazine, memories of shaving his father, the complications of a love affair, and fantasies of intimate encounters with his lovely female therapists.

A particularly powerful element within this movie is the portrayal of Bauby's existential stubbornness. Ironically enough, prior to his stroke, he becomes angry with his lover when she insists they visit Lourdes, a place where divine healings reportedly often takes place. Still later, when in a wheelchair, a priest offers him communion and he signals to his therapist with a blink of his eye that he does not want it. Comically, his therapist ignores this and tells the priest he does. It is this determination to guard his sense of individual humanity that makes Bauby beautifully heroic, even though he would not describe himself as such.

Actress Emmanuelle Seigner plays Bauby's estranged wife Celine with subtle intensity and one marvels at the quiet dignity she brings to the part. Equally engaging in their supporting roles are Max von Sydow as Bauby's father; Marie-Josée Croze as the therapist who teaches him to communicate with blinks of a single eye; and Isaach De Bankole as his visiting friend Laurent.

Both as a book and as a film, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is largely about the perspectives that we choose to apply to our lives. Though he suffered one of the worse fates imaginable, Bauby chose to believe his life was still a meaningful one and worked to produce a celebrated book that was published just 10 days before he died. Julian Schnabel's film is a work of cinematic poetry that honors both the man and the work through the very means that Bauby employed to live his final days: penetrating intelligence, inspired compassion, and luminous imagination.

by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of The American Poet Who Went Home Again
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)


May 4, 2008

 A labor of love and talent, one blink at a time
Imagine having to blink in reply to letters spoken to you just so you could say a few words to someone. Then imagine having to do it thousands of times so you can write a book.

This is the extraordinary journey shown in this film, based on the actual book written by the afflicted Frenchman who had been editing Elle magazine before being stricken down with locked-in syndrome as a result of a stroke. His left eye works, and that's about it. The rest of his body is useless, giving him the impression that he is deep underwater in a diving bell. The butterfly metaphor is equally appropriate, as it represents something that can move around wherever it wants to go, unlike this patient. A great example occurs when Bauby is tired of being fed through a tube and imagines dining on seafood with a beautiful woman and his old, healthy body intact--but only in his dreams.

Two scenes in particular are quite moving: his ailing father's anguished phone call to his beloved son; and a lover's phone call, which the mother of Bauby's children is forced to translate because no one else is available at the time.

The cinematography and narrative are compelling, a rare look inside the mind of someone who can barely move a muscle. The opening of the film is a bit unfocused, but that's exactly how things would look to someone in this condition; in this way, the viewer is placed inside the mind of the patient and given a perspective that the rest of us can only hope we will never have to experience in real life.

Remarkable film.
May 4, 2008

 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Movie Review
About as stunning and emotional as a film can get, Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a poignant story based on the memoirs of Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered from locked-in syndrome, a form of paralysis that kept him a prisoner inside an almost completely immobile body. Noting that the film is based on real events makes it just that much more powerful and a wondrous examination of storytelling from the singular first-person perspective.

Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) has a successful career as the editor of Elle Magazine, has a beautiful family, (although he is not married to the mother of his children) and has an elderly father who is immensely proud. At the age of 43, he is suddenly paralyzed by a stroke that leaves him only able to move his left eye. Unable to speak, but still capable of hearing, his fully functioning mind is trapped in a lifeless body that has become an excruciating keep. With the help of speech therapists and doctors, he is able to communicate by blinking - one blink for yes, two for no. An alphabet system is devised which allows him to choose letters by blinking, while a doctor calls out each letter slowly. Being able to express his thoughts, he eventually painstakingly writes a book with the help of his dictation nurse.

The first-person perspective that narrates much of the film is ingenious, and accurately demonstrates the horrifyingly moribund situation Bauby is in. Early on, Dr. Cocheton sews up Bobby's right eye in a frightful view that shows stitches penetrating an eyelid as if the camera were the eyeball. Later, all of the doctors, family members and activities Jean-Do sees are from the same perspective, which puts the viewer inside the mind of the suffering man. Time allows him to accept his situation, and he miraculously makes the best of it. "I survived by clinging to what makes me human", explains a friend, who earlier had taken Bauby's seat on a plane that was hijacked, resulting in a hostage situation that lasted for four years. Guilt plagues Bauby from that incident, and now he is in a situation equally as terrifying.

Bauby's mind and memory are not paralyzed, and so in many a tearjerker moments he uses his imagination to transport himself to various places and with various people to do things he's now unable to do. Tired of TV dinners, he imagines himself feasting at the Le Duc restaurant, eating a grand meal with the beautiful nurse. He also imagines his curse to have been a dream, and he rises from his wheelchair to dance down the halls of the hospital as it might have been as a luxurious Victorian mansion years ago. Strapped to an upright gurney like Hannibal Lector, Bauby learns to make do with what he has, and realizes that his imagination is the only cure for his imprisoned mind.

His father Papinou (Max Von Sydow) has great difficulty accepting his son's situation, as he is a feeble 92 year old man; he feels just as confined in his apartment, but is unable to adequately communicate with his son. Jean-Do's mistress Ines can't bear to see him, and he barely wants to see his children, afraid of what they might think. The imagery is unbelievably hard-hitting, and we see such gorgeous sights as he metamorphoses them with his imagination. Slow motion, blurred images, and other visual effects keep all of the imagery almost surreal, and a lovely score by Paul Cantelon accompanies every breathtaking moment. Director Julian Schnabel struck gold when he decided to adapt The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. His direction is superb, but the emotional story is so affective and awe-inspiring that little else is necessary to showcase a film of such rare beauty.

- Mike Massie
May 3, 2008

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