The Diving Bell and the Butterfly tells a true story through the eye of a paralyzed man

* * * * 1/2 (out of 5)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le papillon) is a beautifully told story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former editor of Elle Magazine. This Frenchman was 42 years old when he had a terrible stroke while outside Paris. The stroke debilitated his brain stem which connects the brain to the spine. It left every inch of his body paralyzed except amazingly his left eye. A major part of the movie is told through that left eye.

Bauby managed to write a book about his experiences by blinking to a very patient secretary. How is the movie different from the similarly themed "My Left Foot ?" Well for one thing Christy Brown was born with the palsy that he worked through to write his book, while this editor was a vibrant, famous, relatively young man when his malady struck. Of the two, who is more likely to do something creative with his suffering? I say Christy, because if I was Jean Do, as his friends called him, I think I might turn inward and try to will myself to die.

Jean Do's ailment is called Locked-In Syndrome and it's aptly named. He couldn't even move his head so his left eye was forced to watch whatever happens to cross his its path. Because his right eye's movement was stunted the doctors discuss doing a procedure on him that they never explain. And since he can't talk, he can't ask, so he just has to lie there while this insensitive doctor SEWS UP HIS RIGHT EYE. This is to prevent the water in the tear duct from getting septic. Since we are getting a first person account of Jean Do's life, you see the stitches going through the eye lid from the inside out. I've seen horror movies that freaked me out less than that one scene. And all the while the doctor is talking about his wonderful skiing trip.

When Jean Do first awakes from his coma, you get a sense right away where the movie is going and it's a marvel. But it is also very claustrophobic as you imagine what a life that must be like. At times like this you might curse modern medicine for having the ability to keep a person like this alive, but he proves to have much more life to give and live through that one eye. And for a man who was surrounded by fashion models in his former life, in his sick life he is still surrounded by pretty women. His speech and physical therapists, his former lover and his secretary all manage to fall in love with him, or at least that's the way he tells it. The reference to the diving bell is from the metal diving suit that he imagines himself wearing as his crippled body drops deeper into the murky waters below. The butterfly is how one of his "ladies" views his still flying spirits.

In French with Subtitles.


The Freditor