Written by Linda
October 13, 2008
From the opening moments of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, you know you are in for something different. The camera is blurry and disoriented. It has a hard time focusing, lights seem too bright, then images disappear into groggy darkness. Voices come and go, and you are finally able to focus on some faces peering very intently at... YOU. That is because the camera is the eyes (and later the single eye) of a man waking up from a coma. It is a stunning and disorienting visual trick, and I promise you've never seen anything like it on film, especially when the man's vision (i.e. YOUR vision) is robbed of sight in one eye when the doctors sew the patient's infected right eye shut. And you see the needles stitching the lid from the inside. Holy moly
Director Julien Schnabel works with famed cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (best known for his work with Steven Spielberg on such films as Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan) to bring to life the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby (played by Mathieu Amalric), a strong, healthy man in his 40s, successful with the ladies and with his career as the editor of French Elle, magazine, is suddenly felled in the prime of his life, suffering from a mysterious stroke that leaves him completely paralyzed except for his eyes. When he comes to in the hospital, he finds out that he is a victim of "locked-in" syndrome—basically he is trapped in the prison of his own body, unable to speak or to move. But his caretakers know that his mind is unaffected, so they teach him to communicate...
O-N-E-L-E-T-T-E-R-A-T-A-T-I-M-E.
By responding to a person reciting the alphabet one letter at a time, in order of most commonly used letters to least used, Jean-Do (as his friends call him) blinks his eye once for "yes" if it is the correct letter. Wrong letter or wrong word when the listener guesses? Two blinks for "no".
The movie eventually moves from his first-person perspective when we glimpse (as he does) his mangled body in a reflection, his lower lip distorted in a frozen melted grimace. To escape from his distressing reality (the feeling of being suspended in the depths of nothingness in a diving bell), Jean-Do learns that his best escape is his mind. He can revisit memories, create fantasies, and do all the things he ever wanted to... in his head. His mind is the butterfly, and it is free to fly.
So he writes a book. Yes. I know. Crazy! But it is all true. Bauby wrote a book (that the film is based on), transcribed by a very very patient woman (played by the luminous Anne Consigny). He was also lucky enough to be supported by a group of strong and (at least in the movie) beautiful women, from his therapists (played by Marie-Josée Croze and Olatz López Garmendia) to the mother of his children (Emmanuelle Seigner), who returns to his side despite their previous separation.
The actresses and supporting cast are all excellent, but the true standout is Max von Sydow as Bauby's elderly, frail father. Bauby's Papinou, who clearly adores his son, only has a couple scenes, but von Sydow's performance will grab your heart and break it into tiny tiny pieces. Though the movie is surprisingly unsentimental, von Sydow managed to make me sob in a matter of seconds during his final scene with his son.
But luckily the movie is not out to wring tears out of the viewers for two hours. It is fascinating, almost clinically so, and is even surprisingly humorous at times. It has been said that this film is not an actor's showcase, but is really a palate for director (and artist) Julien Schnabel. It is a movie that floats on visuals, and flights of fantasy. And that is probably how Bauby would have liked it.
DVD NOTES
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly DVD contains two featurettes, "Submerged: The Making of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" and "A Cinematic Vision" (which are the usual making-of retreads), plus as a a feature-length commentary by director Julian Schnabel, and finally (and most interesting) a 21-minute Charlie Rose interview with Schnabel.
