Review

Review Date: 13-January-08
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

The name of this movie and the autobiographical book that spawned it denotes two self-images of the subject. At the ripe age of forty-two, Jean-Dominique Bauby suffered a stroke which put him in a coma for three weeks and then brought on "locked-in syndrome," a rare occurrence in which the victim's mind works normally but his body is completely unusable. On most days Bauby imagined himself as trapped in a diving bell or old-fashioned underwater suit in which he was cut off from the rest of the world. On more positive days he fancied his spirit was a butterfly emerging from a shell to witness the wonders of the world.

How do we know what Bauby thought if he was bereft of the power of speech or movement? Because he could control a single part of his body: his left eyelid. This is the amazing fact which allowed his story to be told. With his own patience and the determination of those around him, Bauby blinked out a letter at a time to write a book about his experience.

In Julian Schnabel's riveting film, the camera lingers behind Bauby's working eye seeing only what is visible before it. If that sounds like it makes for a boring movie, it doesn't. Schnabel allows the viewer to understand what being locked in would feel like; we hear Bauby's frustrated and occasionally amused thoughts and commiserate with his imprisonment. (Bauby is played by Mathieu Amalric, who so impressed me in "Munich.") His POV is also a great way to glimpse the kind women who populate his narrow world: his speech therapist (Marie-Josée Croze), his translator (Anne Consigny), and the mother of his three children (Emmanuelle Seigner), from whom he had lately separated. Another therapist takes advantage of his helplessness to foist her religion upon him, a horrifying example of what little say he has over his life.

While the audience remains inside Bauby's head, it sees some of his memories and dreams to expand the film and flesh out his character. Visions from the past paint his story in shades of sorrow as well as triumph. Bauby had so much left to achieve, as he was just hitting his stride as editor of Elle magazine, and so much left to resolve, like his relationship with the younger lover whose absence haunts his stricken solitude. Even more affection could have passed between him and his ailing father (Max von Sydow), making the old man's last days sweet instead of bitter. With frankness and longing, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" perfectly describes what each of the title metaphors means. Incarceration and imagination, drowning and flight, these are the hallmarks of Bauby's tragedy and the emotional wellsprings of this film.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.