The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

Review By: Rocco Passafuime
RoccoPassafuime@TheCinemaSource.com

It can’t be stressed enough how often many of us has human beings take our lives for granted and often don’t know what we have until it’s gone. However, the dictates of our culture teach us that when we are faced with adversity, that we must always push on against it no matter what, which unfortunately is only half-true.

However, when Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir accounts of how a massive stroke left him paralyzed, while remaining fully aware of what was happening around him, it enabled him to paint a unique perspective that is alternately angry, witty, and resolute. Now, Julian Schanabel brings his work to film in an adaptation of Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Frenchman Jean-Dominique Bauby’s (Mathieu Amalric) career as editor-in-chief of Elle magazine has been changed forever. After suffering a massive stroke, the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine learns that he is completely paralyzed, despite still having full awareness of his mental faculties, creating a rare neurological disorder known as “lockdown” syndrome.

Bauby now only has two parts of his body of which he can still communicate with, his brain and his left eye. With the aid of speech therapist Henriette Durand (Marie-Josee Croze), who teaches him to communicate through complex letter-searching, he attempts to move forward with his situation by using his publishing obligation to write a memoir, as he reflects on the past and articulating of what his life has now become, as he puts it, “as a butterfly trapped in a diving bell.”

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a unique and marvelous human story that easily transcends its French origins. However, its French setting and use of the language is just as important as any other element of the film as Bauby’s determined, but often self-cursing and blackly humorous perspective on his situation adds to the unique cultural undertones present.

Also, aside from avoiding all risk of being mired in standard playbook clichés, the lack of Hollywood involvement keeps the film’s uniqueness intact in other ways. The constant use of first-person perspective and the barrage of imagery, that gives us an insight into Bauby’s world both past and present, allows the film to beat effectively according to its own drum, allowing for both the preservation of the memoir’s realism, as well as bringing it effectively to life cinematically in an equally unique way.

The DVD’s picture quality is in the 1:85:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, with the sound quality in Dolby Digital Surround 5.1. There’s also an English dub included with the original French language audio, which is a welcome for people likely to