There are movies that entertain, and movies that get inside of you. "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (Le scaphandre et le papillon) is one of the latter. Actually, it may be more acurate to say that the movie pulls you inside of it.
It is the true story of Jean-Dominique Bauby, the former Director of Elle magazine, who suffered a stroke at age 43. He woke up after a 3-week coma to find himself in almost complete paralysis, except for one eye. His condition, called "locked-in syndrome", meant that all of his mental faculties were intact, but he was mute and completely immobile, dependent on hospital care 24/7.
From the start of the movie, you are "inside" Jean-Do's psyche, through the excellent direction of Julian Schnabel. Just as in his wonderful movie "Basquiat", he demonstrates through different mediums how it feels to be in the mind of these men. In the case of "Diving Bell", the opening scenes in the movie are so uncomfortable that you wonder how you are going to be able to sit through the whole thing. It is this feeling of entrapment that allows you to relate to his situation. Then, as he learns to travel through his imagination and memories, the viewer is also allowed to become free of the body's prison. The imagery is stunning, and Schnabel uses his artist's eye to achieve maximum effect.
Bauby gave the world a wonderful gift - a book that he wrote on his condition, while he was in the hospital, painstakingly dictated through an eye-blink system created by one of his therapists. So the point of view is not imagined, and the words are his own. And thankfully, it is not overly sentimental - there were moments when I laughed out loud, as he found humor in the absurdity of his everyday life. But I cried, too - especially during the scenes with his father. Life is messy, as it is no matter what your situation, and he is forced to deal with loose ends and make the best of them. But what remains constant are the simple pleasures that he sees through his memory and his interaction with the people still in his life: family, love, food, sex, and France, beautiful France. At a time when he was primed for a classic mid-life crisis, he was forced into a real crisis that in the end showed him how beautiful his life really was - a modern-day existentialist lesson, to be sure.
The film left me feeling hopeful and inspired, reminded of the amazing strength of love and creativity, and thankful for all of the pleasures of life that we sometimes take for granted. There is so much inside each one of us, and that is beautiful in and of itself, and allows us to survive what we never imagine that we can.
