The Diving Bell and The Butterfly - Review

Julian Schnabel, 2007

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is the striking adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir 'Le Scaphandre et le papillon', the 43 year old fashion magazine editor, who at the very height of his game falls victim to a stroke and suffers from 'locked-in' syndrome. Rendering him paralysed and unable to speak yet still able to hear and see. Through extensive and furious effort alone he's able to communicate with the aid of his one good eye, blinking a special alphabet code to friends and family, eventually communicating his entire memoir.

For the whole first reel we, like him, are paralysed in place, experiencing the horrifying realisation of a rare condition, learning slowly and painfully that we cannot move and even though we believe to be responding to the doctor's questions we cannot, in fact, speak. It's an effective scene, one the quickly establishes the enormity and horror of suffering such a fatal syndrome. We, like Bauby, ask ourselves the same internal questions, 'is this life?', 'why me? and 'how can I go on?' In the same scene Bauby's right eye is sown shut in fear that it will go septic, trapped behind the eye we watch as the last glimmer of light disappears, trapping us in his head for the rest of the film.

See trailer here

In the wrong hands this film could easily have been turned in to a syrupy nightmare, tears could have been wrenched from your body given the extremity of the original source. With Julian Schnabel at the helm however, former artist and director (Basquiat and Before Night Falls), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly delivers in sweetness, sadness, maturity and restraint. Given Ronald Harwood's (The Pianist) screenplay, Schnabel has applied his artistic eye to create a distinctive look and feel for his movie, luscious hallucinogenic imagery and vivid colourful dreams are quickly shut off by the dank and desolate clinical realities of his predicament.

Max Von Sydow (Papinou) and Mathieu Amalric (Bauby)

The Diving Bell is Bauby's prison, a tomb that he cannot escape as it slowly drags him to the bottom of the ocean, the butterfly his fluttering eye, his realm to another dimension where he can escape into his imagination and live. Played by Mathieu Amalric, a domineering and brooding screen presence, he brings an unnerving strength to his character especially in the scenes before his stroke, his powerful frame and temperament highlighting how even the biggest of men are still at the mercy of a fragile body. When all he has at his disposal is an eye, Amalric manages to portray great dignity beneath the motionless shell, it's a powerful performance and already the James Bond franchise have come a knocking.

With some strong supporting performances, the restrained and beautiful Emmanuelle Seigner playing Bauby's ex-lover and mother to his three children Celine, his patient and diligent nurse Henriette (Marie-Josee Croze) who teaches him to communicate, not forgetting Max Von Sydows 'Papinou', Bauby's father, whose mere presence is enough to make the heart flutter, The Divng Bell and The Butterfly feels extremely well grounded and emits an air of respectability and compassion in the human spirit.

It's been many a year that I've left the cinema so uplifted, so utterly thrilled and fulfilled. And yes I cried, unashamed buckets of tears, maybe the music and the pictures of a youthful Bauby extracted a few but I never felt manipulated. This is a beautiful, life affirming film, two hours of pure unadulterated humanity and Schnabel's breakthrough movie. If you need any more convincing then watch this tantalising clip below, a small scene from the film where Bauby meets his children for the first time since the accident.

Never has Tom Waits 'All the World is Green' sounded so enchanting.