 Starring Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner; Directed by Julian Schnabel
The Diving Bell and
the Butterfly fulfils its
promise in relating the true, heart-wrenching account of Elle magazine’s Jean Bauby. His complicated life was drastically
altered when, aged 43, a paralysing stroke left him the use of only one eye. We
learn this when Schnabel, eager we should experience the same psychological
torment as his main character, presents a blurred, unmoving world, as
realisation slowly dawns upon us all.
This magnificent opening sets the tone for an extraordinary
film that runs the full gamut of human emotion. It’s a story that could ruin a
director. Not only do events play in contained, static environments, his lead
actor has nothing to do. Yet Amalric’s performance is mesmerising. His
contorted, unmoving face expresses more feeling than seems humanly possible,
and as Bauby learns to communicate through blinking – one for A, two for B – he
overcomes excruciating self-pity to write a memoir, one letter at a time.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a love story; between Bauby and his carers, his family, and a life he no longer takes for granted. His memoir is filled with sadness, lust, hope and fancies that, invested with Schnabel’s vision, sculpted a bewitching film, a luscious beauty, which mines the miserably happy spread of human experience.
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