Review 649: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

 

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a remarkable, one-of-a-kind film; One that places its protagonist in a passive position and yet makes for a brilliant character study.

Based on the memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Baudy, the film follows French author and journalist Jean-Dominique Baudy (Mathieu Almalric) after he suffers a massive stroke which leaves him with a condition known as locked-in syndrome.

The solution (curtoisy of director Julian Schnabel and screenwriter Ronald Harwood) is not just to show Baudy bedridden, immobile and unable to communicate but also as the man he was before the stroke as well as what he sees and those around him. They also succeed in getting inside his head and showing his fantasies.

The title itself is a reference to the immobility of Jean-Dominique's body by comparing it to old-fashioned diving headgear, inside which he describes his mind fluttering as delicately as a butterfly.

The cinematography (being shot by Spielberg’s regular DP Janusz Kaminski) is fabulous. From cloudy POV shots showing Baudy barely conscious to wonderful dreamlike scapes of his fantasy’s.   

Mathieu Almalric delivers a tour-de-force performance  Baudy is alive and conscious but unable to communicate with the world.

Emmanuelle Seigner is luminous and lovely playing Baudy’s former partner and mother to his children Celine; She remains steadfast loyal to him through his ordeal, helping him to communicate