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There is no shortage of adjectives to describe The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. Words like amazing, astounding, triumphant, beautiful, harrowing and graceful are all appropriate.  Ultimately, though,  they do not do the film, nor the story it tells any justice.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is based on the autobiography of Jean-Dominique Bauby, a man who at age 43 found himself trapped inside a lifeless body, unable to move or speak and only able to blink his left eye. It tells the story of someone who, in spite of  that condition still manages to tell his story, one letter at a time when it would not be unreasonable to sink into utter desolation.

Summary Table

The film opens as Bauby is waking up from a coma.  Almost the entire movie is shown from the perspective of Bauby and at first it is jarring and disorienting. After a while though, we as the audience really feel that we are in this situation, that we are sharing the perspective of the stricken protagonist.

The most fascinating aspect of The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is that, in addition to sharing his perspective, we also share in the humanity of the man trapped in this situation. The humor and vitality, as well as the honesty and humility with which he approaches his confinement is inspirational to say the least.

Jean-Dominique Bauby, on the face of it, led the perfect life. He was succesful: At 43 he was the editor of Elle magazine, had a book deal and a beautiful family. He was not perfect, there are allusions to a womanising spirit and the film makes no attempt to hide that he and the mother of his children were estranged.

Then one day, as he was driving with his son in his new car he suffered a debilitating stroke that irreversibly damaged his brain stem and left him with control of only his left eye. This is how we meet him, a man trapped with nothing but his thoughts, totally incapable of communicating with the outside world.

At first he is in shock, his thoughts are in disarray as he struggles to comprehend what has happened to him. Then he is hopeful that he might recover, but as time goes on he starts to realise that he might not recover.  As he is made to realise that he might be trapped permanently in the limbo of a lifeless, yet still living body, his thoughts become morose. He reflects on the things he did that he was ashamed of, the things he could not make right and the things he was not able to do.

Instead of descending into hopelessness, he instead turns to his imagination.  He goes on grand voyages – enjoys sumptuous meals at the finest restaurants, holidays at the most beautiful resorts. As he says in the narrative, all he has left are his memories and his imagination.

Over time, with the assistance of his speech therapist, a system is devised whereby he is able to communicate by blinking while she reads out letters of the alphabet. It is in this manner that he is able to dictate his memoirs as well as relate the experience of being trapped in his own body.

Director Julian Schnabel has made a cinematic career out of telling the stories of uniquely interesting individuals. His previous films Basquiat and Before Night Falls being about a New York graffiti artist and a Cuban poet and novelist respectively. In The Diving Bell and The Butterfly he affords us the opportunity to see inside the mind of a uniquely strong individual.

Seeing as the story is told from the perspective of an almost completely disabled and immobile protagonist, it is a feat of incredible scripting and cinematography that it never gets boring or bogged down.  We are treated to a variety of cut-away scenes, some being flashbacks to Bauby’s life before the stroke while others are scenes from his imagination. The cinematography is rich and innovative with many interesting and unconventional camera angles and effects.

Performances are strong all-round, with especially moving supporting performances from Max von Sydow as Bauby’s 92 year old father and Emmanuelle Seigner as Celine, the loving mother of his children. Of course Mathieu Amalric makes the most of the lead role and perfectly relates the experience of being in the position he finds himself.

Unfortunately, while I truly enjoyed this film and was moved by the story it tells, I am unable to recommend it without some reservation.  The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is a French language film, and as such is subtitled. Unfortunately that fact alone is usually enought to turn off a large segment of the audience. Furthermore, while it is moving and inspirational, it is far from a feel-good movie in the traditional sense.

Having said that, though, I can say that without a doubt that The Diving Bell and The Butterfly is one of the best films I have seen this year and in a very long time.