The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Saw the film, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, at its UK première at the French Institute's Ciné Lumiere - the film goes on general release on 8 February. This special advanced screening was attended by the Director, Julian Schnabel, and lead actor, Mathieu Amalric, who gave a filmed (by CBS) interview and Question and Answers session after the film.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly film is based on the book (of the same name) by Jean-Dominique Bauby (its original French title being: Le Scaphandre et le Papillon). The book is the memoir of Bauby written during the time he was in hospital after suffering a stroke at the age of 43. Bauby had been the editor of the French-edition of Elle magazine. Bauby had his stroke on the 8 December 1995 and woke up twenty days later suffering from ”Locked-In syndrome” - this meant he had paralysis of nearly every voluntary muscle in the body. Bauby’s brain was fine - he had his memories and imagination - and he was also able to blink his left eyelid.
The book was written by Bauby in his mind and conveyed letter-by-letter by blinking when the correct letter was read to him - the process meant it took about two minutes to write each word. The book was published on 6 March 1997. Bauby died on 9 March 1997.
Since I have not read the book I can not comment on how closely the film represents the book. However, I can comment on the merits of the film. The film weighs in at 112 minutes. Of this, the first 20 minutes are shot from the viewpoint of Bauby - showing us what he sees and hears, and we get to hear his thoughts. It is only after his right eye is sewn up that the camera moves out and shows us Bauby. There is great artistic merit as it gives us a dose of Bauby’s reality and a small insight into how it would feel.
The film is certainly not light-hearted, yet we are treated to Bauby’s sense of humour (and humour is a powerful tool that humans possess for dealing with grave and desperate situations) throughout. We also witness as he comes to terms with his condition and makes attempts to move his mouth and tongue. He also has to contend with meeting his three children. There are also flashbacks in the film to earlier parts of Bauby’s life: standing at the Berck-sur-mer train station as a young boy with his father; giving his elderly dad a shave just days before the stroke; being with his lover in Lourdes.
To convey the sense of being trapped we see Bauby’s thought of himself as a diver in a diving suit, physically trapped inside a big metal diver’s helmet (which represents the diving bell1)). Yet his mind is free like the butterfly. There are quite a lot of artistic shots and use of imagery throughout the film, and water features quite heavily - Bauby trapped in his deep-sea diver costume under water; Bauby with his family or speech therapist at the beach; and the melting glacier (which reforms at the end of the film).
Whilst the film makes the viewer think and, perhaps, consider their life, the question has to be asked: How good is the film? For me there were some flaws with the film. I did not like the way when the letters were read out, it would be for say the letter p but come up as say f on the subtitles. I would have rather they spelt it out as the French word Père and then had Father next to it in parenthesis. I am also not certain just how much emotional attachment I developed for Bauby either - though I was certainly sad when he died of heart failure at the end.
In full reflection I would highly recommend that people do see this film. It won’t change your life, but it will make you think. It is well acted and did not feel too long, indeed I could have sat through another 20-30 minutes. I am giving it a very impressive 8 out of 10.
EDIT (2008/01/21 21.30): I think my rating may be a little too generous. I am now giving it a 7 out of 10 and merely recommend that you do see this film - even if just on DVD or television. I got carried away with the sentimentality of the film, the attractiveness of the actresses, and, perhaps, a little touch of admiration for Jean-Do’s determination.
Two other tiny criticisms I would have of the film: One is that sometimes the music was suddenly very loud; the other was in the scenes demonstrating Bauby’s imagination it used clips from old films - this would not signify a vivid imagination, just a good memory. Obviously, this was done for budget purposes and because the viewer will recognise some of the imagery (but I was not convinced by it).