The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a French film based on the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, an Elle editor who suffered a massive stroke at the age of 43, leaving him paralyzed. His only means of communication was through blinking his left eye.
The first 45 minutes are mostly told in the first person. We see through Bauby's eyes as he wakes up in a hospital and doctors lean over him and tell him what happened to him. We hear Bauby's thoughts, even as he realizes he's not able to speak them to his doctors. Initial shots are blurry and we see Bauby blink (apparently filmed by having someone pinch their fingers over the camera lens). The first person shots are interspersed with other shots of memories or metaphors, a repeated one of a diver in a diving suit which is how Bauby feels in his body.
Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski is best known for working with Steven Speilberg since Schindler's List. The camera work isn't as annoying as Cloverfield but it does take some getting used to. There were nine people in the matinee I saw and two left after about 15 minutes which was definitely a mistake.
We see the various day to day events of a patient dependent on others for everything. Henriette and Marie are two therapists who help Baugy learn to speak and communicate. Marie teaches him a system where she says the letters of the alphabet in order of common use (in French of course) and Bauby blinks when she says the letter he wants. We hear this sequence a lot, fortunately even the alphabet in French sounds good. The first thing he says is "I want death". The mother of his children, Céline, who he never married, comes to visit him, but he doesn't want her to bring the children to see him.
About 45 minutes into the film he says "I decided to stop pitying myself. Other than my eye, two things aren't paralyzed, my imagination and my memory." At this point most of the first person shots stop and the film shifts to third person scenes. He had a contract with a publisher to write a book and decides to follow through. Claude comes to take his dictation, one blink at a time. Meanwhile he has more visits from Céline and allows her children to come. He talks to his father Papinou and remembers some previous conversations with him. He remembers past loves and other events that lead up his stroke.
Despite the fears that the opening scenes evoke, this is not a depressing movie. Sad certainly, but not depressing. I wouldn't call it a celebration of life either. But it is an interesting and intimate portrait of person in a devastating situation without all the answers.
The acting is quite good. Mathieu Amalric plays Jean-Do and manages to express a lot just through his left eye. The only actor I knew was Max von Sydow as Papinou and he was outstanding in his two scenes. The other characters were other French actresses I didn't know. Each was more beautiful than the last, though in a might you know this person kind of way.
I liked the film a lot (enjoyed isn't quite the right sentiment) though I've seen several reviews that are far more glowing about it how innovative everything about it is. Bauby's situation was of course tragic and to write a best selling book is quite an accomplishment under any circumstances, but I think these reviewers must never have heard of Stephen Hawking. And while I haven't seen many first person films, I know I was introduced to the concept in 1978 with an episode of M*A*S*H told from the point of view of the patient (and in real time).
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