The Diving Bell And The Butterfly Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Let your imagination set you free
Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of being trapped inside his body to his imagined stories from lands he'd only visited in his mind.
| Mathieu Amalric | Jean-Dominique 'Jean-Do' Bauby |
| Emmanuelle Seigner | Céline Desmoulins |
| Marie-Josée Croze | Henriette Durand |
| Anne Consigny | Claude |
| Patrick Chesnais | Dr. Lepage |
| Niels Arestrup | Roussin |
| Olatz López Garmendia | Marie Lopez |
| Jean-Pierre Cassel | Père Lucien/Lourdes Vendor |
| Marina Hands | Joséphine |
| Max von Sydow | Papinou Bauby |
| Isaach De Bankolé | Laurent |
| Emma de Caunes | Empress Eugénie |
| Jean-Philippe Écoffey | Dr. Mercier |
| Gérard Watkins | Le docteur Cocheton |
| Nicolas Le Riche | Nijinski |
| Julian Schnabel |
8.20 out of 10 (9489 votes)
Visitor Reviews
A Film of Depth and Complexity
posted on 27 Aug 2009'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' directed by Julian Schnabel, is a fantastic French film. It's about Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) , who was editor for French 'Elle' magazine, and who, in 1995, had a massive stroke, which left him totally paralysed. How Almaric conveys the 'feeling of claustrophobia and not make it a depressing experience is just extraordinary'. However, Bauby can move his left eyelid, and this is how he communicates with his therapist, and over time he writes his memoir. It's a powerful and poignant film with much pathos, but with elements of humour, too. What I found particularly interesting about the film, was not only the story, but the cinematography. Most of the scenes are presented from Bauby's point of view, and the way the camera does this is nothing short of brilliant, as well as the use of flashbacks to tell his story. All this added to the complexity and depth of this film. Highly recommended.
hella stellar in periscope and emotional magnitude
posted on 23 Aug 2009caution) slightly slow to grab the viewer; ultimately, worth the wait. when the movie opens it kind of took me by surprise even though i knew it was coming, this seeing the world through Bauby's eyes; but then we are treated to a loss of one of those eyes, as the medic sews the eye shut, its hard not to cringe. i pegged this one as utter misery until Bauby begins to speak and shows his personality, as the movie unfolds we see that he has a canny wit and engaging inner dialogue one that is sure to draw any viewer into his little spyglass. this is a story of a man who led an extremely full life, successful glamorous career, loved by many, family and children, good health, you name it; then Bam! a ruinous stroke as he is driving his new car with his son as his passenger, and then the long road back to a semi-non vegitative state. What Bauby goes through to communicate is sheer madness. I came away with so much admiration for the main character, and for this truly creative and visionary film maker. There are so many scenes that just grab the hand of the reader and pull them into the picture; all I can say, is See this movie! It will break your heart and re-mend it all in one sitting. This one is past the turn off of entertainment and on the long slow drive down to Georgia where the winds shall blow as they wish; you have no say in where your soul lands.
Too frighteningly real
posted on 09 Aug 2009Being married to a stroke survivor brought this painfully home. As he also
has aphasia (difficulty speaking and processing information) I shuddered
when Bauby returned from his 3 week coma to find his life altered forever,
and the "normal" way of communicating a thing of history. He (and his able
assistant, Claude) must be commended for their remarkable achievement. The
film portrayal was outstanding, and shooting from Bauby's perspective made
me feel as if I was Bauby, and gave me some idea of what my husband also
went through in those early days.
Like anything from the mind of Julian Schnabel, this movie is not to be missed.
posted on 26 Jul 2009This is an indescribably beautiful and breathtaking film by the artist turned director Julian Schnabel. I've enjoyed each of Schnabel's three magnificent films, each more than the other. Basquiat was a great debut. Before Night Falls is one of my Top 10 movies (and it introduced Javier Bardem to mainstream US moviegoers). But 'Diving Bell' tops them both. Schnabel took home both a Golden Globe and Independent Spirit award as Best Birector.
Schnabel brilliantly depicts Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric co-star of Kings & Queen along with my favorite French actress, Emmanuelle Devos) in his 'locked-in' state after a devastating cerebro-vascular accident. The director's point-of-view filming juxtaposes "Jean-Do's" still well-functioning mind vs. the perception of those surrounding him. Left only with his left eye to communicate, Bauby perseveres to do so, aided first by tutelage and then by extraordinary patience and respect from a team of doctors, nurses and therapists. Communicating only through that eye, Bauby dictates a book - a triumph of will if there ever was one.
This movie - like anything from the mind and hands of Julian Schnabel - is not to be missed.
THIS is why I love the movies!
posted on 10 Jul 2009This film, hands down, is one of the best films I have ever seen...in my entire life. It is a work of art, so beautifully done, so poignant, so true, so moving, and very real. I felt locked-in myself while watching it. The POV of Jean-Do was astoundingly ingenius, drawing me in immediately, from the opening shot through to the end.
What a story, such a tragedy, I read the book afterwards. In fact, I purchased it on the way home from the theater. The film is better, in my opinion--it expounds on the books ideas much more elaborately. Why oh why can't more films be of such quality?
Homage to Jean-Dominique Bauby
posted on 04 Jul 2009An engaging and penetrating adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby's brilliant memoir of the same title. Jean-Do was the handsome young editor of Elle magazine, with the house, the car, a beautiful wife and adorable children, and of course, the other woman. While enjoying the accoutrements of the good life he suffers a massive stroke that leaves him paralyzed from head to toe, but for the ability to blink his left eye. He is afflicted with what is termed locked-in syndrome. He retains the faculties of memory and imagination and, with the help of his devoted carers, is able to complete his memoire by blinking yes or no in response to a particular letter of the alphabet. With the aide of a patient scribe, Jean-Do retraces the defining moments of his short life from the fresh perspective of this unique predicament, inside what he metaphorically describes as his diving bell - the world beneath his skin containing all of his subjective thoughts, his reflexive response to what appears real externally, and what he retains of his past. The aesthetic is represented as a butterfly that wanders at will, and graces the things its touches with its beauty. He sees the faces of his loved ones: his wife, lover, children, and adorable carers, and appreciates what he has lost - the capacity to fully express his love for them with a gentle embrace. It is a multi layered film that explores the emotional responses of others to Jean-Do's loss as well. This is one of those rare films that can change your way of seeing. I found it profoundly moving and performed by an outstanding cast. The one shame is that Jean-Do hasn't survived to see what beauty his little butterfly is bringing to the world after all.
Looking Out from a Locked-In Mind
posted on 30 Jun 2009Julian Schnabel, well accepted as one of the important visual artists of our time, continues to impress with his small but elite group of films, proving that paintings and cinema are closely related as a means to reach the psyche. In 'Le Scaphandre et le papillon' ('The Diving Bell and the Butterfly') he has transformed the memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby (with the sensitive screen adaptation by Ronald Harwood) into an experience for the mind and the heart. It is an extraordinary blend of visual effects, poetry, exquisite acting, and the perseverance of the human mind to communicate with the world when all seeming variations of communication are stripped away.
Jean-Dominique (Jean-Do) Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) was the editor of the French magazine 'Elle', living with the beautiful Céline Desmoulins (Emmanuelle Seigner) and their three children, when during a ride with his son he has a massive stroke that leaves him completely paralyzed (the 'locked-in syndrome'). When he awakens from his coma he is able to hear and to see but he cannot speak or move, except for his eyes. From this point we, the audience, experience the world as through the eyes of Jean-Do, share his frustrations of being unable to speak, and in his ultimately having to communicate through the fine skills of his speech therapist Henriette Durand (Marie-Josée Croze) by blinking his eye once or twice for yes or no as each letter of the alphabet is spoken - an arduous task for both patient and visitor. He decides he wants to write his memoirs and Claude (Anne Consigny) is assigned to take his 'dictation'. The only faculties Jean-Do retains are his memory and his fantasies, and it is through the acting out of these that we discover the victim's private and secret life as well as his relationships to colleagues and lovers and family. He imagines the hospital where he is confined in the time of Nijinsky (Nicolas Le Riche) and Empress Eugénie (Emma de Caunes) and filters the realities of his life through the interactions with his comrades Laurent (Isaach De Bankolé) and others as well as vivid memories of his relationship with his father Papinou Bauby (Max von Sydow). With the patient assistance of the health providers, friends and family he is able to complete his memoir, the story of a man locked in a diving bell longing for the freedom of a butterfly, released form its cocoon. .
Getting used to the film technique Schnabel uses takes patience, but for those who are willing to accept the pace of the film, rich with fantasy and historical sequences, the impact is not only compelling but breathtaking. This telling of a true story is a fine work from all concerned and for this viewer it is one of the best films of recent years. Grady Harp, May 08
touching
posted on 24 Jun 2009This is a sensitive, sophisticated film about the human condition. Schnabel does not capture only the mind of a middle-aged man "locked-in" into his head, but also the microscosmos of people who raised, loved and took care of him after the incapacitating stroke. These people, and the French rehabilitation system, are very much central to the film as the American spectator watches - sometimes a bit enviously - the care and attention to personal dignity that epitomizes French healthcare.
Anyway. The film is brilliant. Schnabel creates suspense by masterfully introducing elements into the story (Bauby's comprehension that he is not heard; his face; his family). The real & imagined, dreams & fantasy, memory and real-time are mixed together seamlessly. While the director does not want to shield the spectator from the empathic pain, he also shows a man who - having lost the ability to move everything but his eye muscles, also kept his sense of humor and sarcasm, and his talent for hurting those close to him. The last scene where the wife picks up the telephone call from the mistress for whom Bauby left his family is heartbreaking. The scene where they are suturing his eyelids is profoundly painful.
The actors are superb, including the women in main supporting roles. Camera: brilliant. In other words, this film is a masterpiece.
Prepare To Be Moved...
posted on 14 Jun 2009THE POINT OF VIEW REVIEW: POPCORN TIME with "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly"
Once in a great while a tragic story is told with great hope and true elegance. The Diving Bell And The Butterfly does just that.
In 1995 the editor of French Elle Magazine, Jean-Dominigue Bauby, suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed in all but one eye. With the use of the one eye, his learned ability to communicate through blinking, and a previously promised book deal, Bauby graced the world with his memoir, which director Julia Schnable brings to the screen along with an amazing cast and exceptional filmmaking in this true life story.
Although tackling a tragic subject, Diving Bell is not depressing rather it is poignant and refreshing.
This is the film of a hero. This is story which reminds us of who we are. This is a situation which demonstrates that the ordinary and the extraordinary elements of life are much closer than we realize.
Prepare to be moved.
[...]
Sensitive film, extraordinary story
posted on 08 Jun 2009Quite a feat to translate such a difficult story into film, and it works. This is a sensitive film of an extraordinary story at once a lesson in life and death, as well as poignant and inspirational - and handled without ever becoming cloying or maudlin.
Jean-Dominique Bauby: Other than my eye, two things aren't paralyzed, my imagination and my memory
posted on 25 May 2009I saw it last night and I can't stop thinking of it. It is a totally engrossing film about a man in the extraordinary tragic situation but it is a life-confirming, profound and even optimistic cinematic experience, one of the best from last year and very close to the top. Never before (or at least I can't recall) has sound of silence been captured on the screen with such artistry, humanity, appreciation for every moment of life no matter how unbearable it could become. As long as our memory and imagination are not paralyzed and could take us anywhere in this world, we are alive. For the painter turned Film Director, Julian Schnabel, the film was his way to cope with the horrifying fear of death and with the loss of his father. I believe he succeeded admirably. I simply love this film. It takes us to the mind of the completely paralyzed man, makes us feel what he feels, see what he sees with his only alive left eye, and it is not depressing or manipulative, on the contrary - it is honest, brave, beautiful, it makes you smile a few times, and it is very moving.
Life worth living
posted on 09 May 2009I know that this film is meant to be inspirational, but I found it difficult to watch. It is a story of French magazine "Elle"'s editor who suffers a stroke that leaves him paralized so that only his left eye has any movement. With the help of his physical and speach therapists he learns to communicate by blinking. It is that way of communication that helped him create the book of the same title as this movie. Film explores what it must be for a person to be locked inside his own body. Completely aware of surroundings, conversations taking place, people around and yet unable to talk, move or even blow away the fly that is on his nose while he is helplessly strapped to his therapeutic table. It takes full staff of doctores, therapists, nurses and nursing aides to feed, bathe and care for him around the clock. In spite of the terrible affliction, we have reservations about this man who still seems selfish, sexist, insensitive to women who love him, not around his children enough. But it seems that writing this autobiography was his life's legacy to not only his immediate family but world. Stricken by stroke at age 42 he dies almost a year later only a few days after his book was published. If one has not thought about living will, power of attorney and choices we need to make at the times when something terrible like this happens to any of us, I guarantee that one will start thinking about these things after watching this movie.
Oscar Contender Alert - Remarkably Powerful Film
posted on 29 Apr 2009Generally, films containing series of disassociative images, tons of POV shots and dream sequences are immediate turn-offs for me. I like my films to have stories and I like those stories to be linear. For the most part.
So, it is more than a little surprising that I liked Julian Schnabel's new film "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" based on the life of Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby's life. In fact, I didn't just like it, I loved it. It is a great, moving, well-made film.
Jean-Do (Mathieu Almaric) wakes up to find himself in a hospital room in a resort on the coast of France. He quickly learns he is paralyzed from head to toe, cannot speak, and can only blink one eye. As the doctors and their staff visit and do their tests, he learns the prognosis is not good, but they go ahead with more tests and try to help him learn how to adjust to the new life, to rehabilitate him. His estranged wife Henriette (Marie-Josee Croze) visits and can barely look at her husband. One of the physical therapists, Claude (Anne Consigny) is brought on to try to help him learn how to communicate again. She has developed a system; she holds up a card listing all of the letters of the alphabet in the order they are most commonly used. She begins to rapidly go through them. When he hears a letter he wants to use, he blinks. As the words begin to form, she suggests a word. If it is the correct word, she blinks. Jean-Do contacts his publisher, with the help of Claude, and arranges for a transcriber to help him write a book about his experiences. Celine (Emmanuelle Seigner, "The Ninth Gate") arrives and to help him write and cope with his life. Writing the book helps him to remember back to key moments in his life, including interactions with his father, Papinou (Max Von Sydow).
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is really a fairly remarkable film. Schnabel uses all of those elements I mentioned previously, the ones I hate, to evoke what Jean-Do is going through. The film opens with a series of flashes and brief glimpses of objects. We hear Jean-Do narrating and feel his confusion as he tries to figure out where he is. Weak, he can barely keep his eyes open. He quickly realizes a series of doctors are fawning over him, trying to figure out what has happened to him. Schnabel uses a series of quick shots, overexposures, brief images and more to give us a feeling of what is going on in Jean-Do's head. Naturally, he is confused and disoriented and we get a real feeling for that.
This actually goes on for a while, longer than I would've believed possible in order to maintain any sort of narrative. But because we are inside the patients head for so long, we get a real feel for what he is experiencing. As we listen to his narrative, which are essentially his thoughts, and see what he is seeing, in brief glimpses, and learn what he learns, Schnabel and actor Mathieu Almaric paint a remarkably vivid portrait of this man who can only move one eye.
Many actors have portrayed paraplegics in the past, and been richly rewarded for their work with Oscars. Almaric's performance blows them out of the water. For the first twenty or so minutes, we don't even see the actor, but we get a feeling for his character, for his frustration, for his desperation. We are listening to his thoughts and this gives us a great picture of what he is feeling. When we do finally see Jean-Do, we already have a feeling of what this character will be like.
In a film like this, there are usually glimpses into the characters life before the sickness hits, generally told through flashbacks. In "Diving Bell", there are surprisingly few flashbacks to his life before the sickness. These aren't really needed because the actor gives us glimpses of this previous life through his performance. When we do see a glimpse of this life, it is necessary, to help establish a character we haven't met yet, or to set up an event later in the film. One such moment happens when Jean-Do remembers a time when he visited his father, Papinou (Von Sydow) in his Paris apartment. Papinou, an elderly man, is confined to second floor apartment because he can't get up and down the stairs. Jean-Do visits him and gives him a shave. It is a touching moment, filled with emotion because they clearly love each other very much.
The process of writing the book comes to fill the majority of the second act of the film. It is a laborious process, but as jean-Do and Celine get the hang of working with each other, they become more productive. Yet, Jean-Do can't help but comment about how slow the process is, the pains they go through getting accustomed to one another, and more. As Celine gets to know the former magazine editor better, she begins to sense what he is trying to say after he picks up a few letters. In fact, everyone close to him does the same thing. These moments are very helpful to the viewer because they help to show he can communicate and it would become overly tedious if we had to sit and watch him.
All of these moments point to one thing; a filmmaker who knows how to compose the type of portrait he wants to paint for the audience. He doesn't want us to observe Jean-Do and look at the paraplegic and moan about how tragic his life is. He wants us to experience the life and the pain of this life through the subject's eyes. It is a remarkably different type of film portrayal than we usually see and it is extremely effective. Rather than remark about how wonderful Robert DeNiro is or how great Daniel Day-Lewis is (and they both were, in their own rights), Schnabel wants us to see every facet of this man's life. But more importantly, he wants us to see how he deals with all of the problems of being completely immobile. Think about it. A French man who is barely middle aged, living a life many of us would dream about, suddenly wakes up to find he can only move one eye and can't communicate with anyone. Confined to a bed and a wheel chair, he must find new ways to converse with his family and friends and the world. So, Claude is a bit of a godsend, when she arrives and announces she has come up with her new communication system.
But the remarkable thing about "Diving Bell" and Almaric's performance is that this is not the only way he manages to communicate. Amazingly, given the actor is portraying someone who can move only a single part of their body, Almaric makes his character very emotional. With a puffy, permanently pouting lip, an effect of the stroke, Alamric merely looks forward and manages to convey a lot of what Jean-Do is feeling. Because the film so quickly, and effectively, establishes the problems Jean-Do has, we carry this feeling throughout the film, as we watch him convey his emotions with merely a blink of the eye. But as the story progresses, he gets more emotional when he realizes his situation will have more lasting effects and tears swell in his eye.
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is a remarkably powerful and moving portrait of a man who suffers a fate more horrible than most of us can imagine.
A love story in the blink of an eye . . .
posted on 23 Apr 2009"My mind takes flight like a butterfly."
Based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's French memoir, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon), painter-director Julian Schnabel's 2007 film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells the story of Bauby's life after suffering a massive stroke at the age of 43. Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), a well-known Parisian, and the French editor of Elle magazine, suffered a stroke which rendered his brain stem inactive. When he woke from a deep coma twenty days later, he found he was mute and almost entirely paralyzed. He could only move his head a little, grunt, and blink his left eye. This rare condition is called locked-in syndrome. In this condition, with the help of his speech therapist (Marie-Josee Croze), Bauby authored his memoir entirely in his head, conveying it one letter at a time by blinking his left eye when an assistant (Anne Consigny) reciting the alphabet arrived at the letter he had in mind. (Bauby's extraordinary book reportedly took about 200,000 blinks to write.) Bauby died two after his book was published.
As if his paralyzed body were imprisoned in a diving bell, with his mind still as free as a butterfly, Bauby's poignant memoir is a rare testament in what it means to be human. To get a sense of what his film is about--imagine Bauby, his right eyelid sutured shut, fed a brownish fluid through a gastric tube, drooling uncontrollably, breathing through a tracheostomy tube, his urine leaking into his bedding from a catheter, meanwhile traveling the world in his memory, reflecting upon his family and friends, socializing at the Cafe de Flore, eating French food (boeuf en gelee and homemade sausage and wine), and remembering the pleasure of lying in bed beside his lover. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, as the title "A Memoir of Life in Death" suggests, is a love story about one man's love of life. Recommended for anyone interested in what it means to be truly alive in the world.
Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls), has transformed Bauby's highly-recommended book into a film that is poignant and profound. Much of the movie is told from Bauby's perspective, memories and imagination. There are several beautiful scenes (filmed by cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski) where Bauby's imagination takes flight, transporting him to beaches, mountains, and lovers he has known. This was one of the ten best cinematic experiences of 2007 in my opinion.
G. Merritt
A chilling reminder of our frailty
posted on 19 Apr 2009Le Scaphandre et le papillon is based on the very novel it's about. The locked-down Jean Dominique Bauby is paralyzed everywhere except for one eye. Right away you get locked into Bauby's head with a unique lense that, without panning, drifts into and away from objects and faces(faces that were like giants on the big screen, small-ant-syndrome) and makes ghosts of everyones face when he bleeds tears. To Jean, the only thing alive to him is his vivid imagination, memory, and wakeness. You glimpse his artistic voyeurisms as open vaults. Deep under-water in a Diving Bell, alone, and sometimes with another. A metamorphosing Butterfly. Unlike Jean Dominique you can venture away from his tortured existance while keeping that reality going. You slip away into his past, in recollections, and then in flashbacks as seen fit by English speaking Director Julian Schnabel. An artistic movie that makes you think about your own mortality.
a journey into the soul...
posted on 11 Apr 2009brief plot: rich, playboy man suffers stroke, is paralyzed as a result, learns how to find meaning in life despite his limitations.
if you ever feel self-pity or depressed, then you need to watch this movie, which will show you just how blessed you really are.
incredible performance by the lead actor, the other actors are great as well.
you will re-evaluate your own life after watching this.
*** highly recommended ***
Amazing story!
posted on 11 Apr 2009This is one of those very touching, soul searching stories that often causes the viewer to re-examine the priorities in their own lives. The true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who knew little about failure and lived life in the fast lane, takes an unfortunate turn when a paralyzing stroke tragically takes that life away from him and leaves Bauby imprisoned in his own body. His struggle to come to terms with 'locked in syndrome' is heart wrenching. Only able to move one eyelid, Bauby dictates his memoir through a special alphabet worked out with a therapist. The slow Morse code Bauby uses to dictate and communicate is a testimony to the amazing strength of patience and perseverance. Amazing story!
Chrissy K. McVay - Author
one letter per blink
posted on 31 Aug 2009Jean-Dominique Bauby had it made, or so he thought. At age 43 he was the editor of Elle magazine, cynical, and a stranger to failure. Then he had a massive stroke that left him in a coma for three weeks. When he awoke he suffered from a rare neurological disorder called "locked in syndrome." He could hear a little and his brain worked fine, but he was totally paralyzed and couldn't speak. But he could blink with his left eye. This remarkable film about his incredible story tells how Bauby eventually dictated the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, letter by letter, to his amanuensis. A speech therapist devised a chart with the letters of the alphabet arranged by frequency of use, and as she spoke the letters Bauby would blink for the letter he wanted. Though locked in the heavy "diving bell" of his useless body, Bauby's imagination could still fly as playfully as a butterfly. For most of the film viewers have the perspective of Bauby--awkward camera angles, people only partially in his limited field of vision or too close, blurry images that fade in and out, and wanting to say what was precisely on his brain but could not utter. Only forty-five minutes into the film do we actually see Bauby himself. Family and critics have complained about inconsistencies between the film, the book, and Bauby's real life, but this is nevertheless a phenomenal film that earned four Academy Award nominations. Bauby died in 1997 just days after the publication of his book. In French with English subtitles.