The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Le Scaphandre et le Papillon
Film details
Drama · History · Julian Schnabel · 1h 52min
Synopsis
Jean-Dominique Bauby, editor-in-chief of French fashion bible Elle magazine, has a devastating stroke at age 43. The damage to his brain stem results in locked-in syndrome, with which he is almost completely paralyzed and only able to communicate by blinking an eye. Bauby painstakingly dictates his memoir via the only means of expression left to him.
Verdict
Profound reflection on human dignity and inner freedom in suffering.
In-depth analysis
The film is an extraordinary testament to the fact that human dignity transcends physical capacity. Bauby, completely paralyzed save for one eye, finds in memory and imagination a space of irreducible freedom. The narrative alternates between the claustrophobia of the present (the 'diving bell') and the beauty of memories and dreams (the 'butterfly'), showing that the human spirit remains whole even when the body is destroyed. The screenplay does not shy away from the moral complexity of his previous life: adult romantic relationships, a bohemian existence, the frivolities of the publishing world. But the illness operates as a turning point: Bauby discovers the essential when all that is accessory is stripped away from him. The process of writing his memoirs, blinking letter by letter, is an act of everyday heroism that the camera captures with awe. The cinematography employs immersive visual techniques so that the viewer experiences the body's prison and the vastness of the inner world. It is not content for children due to the depth of suffering addressed and the adult life depicted in flashbacks. Appropriate for older adolescents and adults who can process its emotional density.