Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric), “Jean-Do” to his friends, has it all. This father of two is known all over the fashion world, the French editor of Elle renowned for his razor sharp sense of humor, his vivid attention to detail, his winning sense of style and his seemingly never-ending zest for life. Nothing can stop him and nothing can get in his way, all the world has to offer sitting at the tips of his fingers just waiting for him to scoop it up within his fingers.

Mathieu Amalric and Anne Consigny in Miramax Films' The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Things change in an instant when a tragic accident leaves Jean-Do confined to a wheelchair and with only the use his left eyelid to communicate. Most would crumble into despair and pain faced with such obstacles. Of those, the majority would probably give up completely. But Jean-Do refuses to give in, finding a way to tap into the limitlessness of his imagination and, with the aid of his literary assistant Claude (Anne Consigny), begins to write again.

Based on the international best-seller and directed by iconoclastic filmmaker Julian Schnabel (Before Night Falls, Basquiat), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is one of the more harrowing and unique cinematic experiences I’ve had this year. For the majority of the picture we find ourselves living within Jean-Dominique Bauby’s world, trapped behind his left eye with the rest of humanity going about its way right there in front of us. And yet, as confining as this can feel it never becomes hopelessly claustrophobic. More, by the end it’s actually downright inspirational, the writer’s journey a soaring testament to the human spirit impossible to dismiss.

But maybe possible to resist. I can’t say the pre-accident Bauby is all that sympathetic, and why his wife Céline (Emmanuelle Seigner) remains so devoted to him after his infidelities is a little bit beyond me. It is the titular “diving bell,” the iron confines the writer imagines himself trapped underneath the ocean within, that can be the toughest pill to swallow. There are times this becomes almost overpowering, and during the first third I was repeatedly squirming in my theater seat wondering if I was going to be able to handle it.

And suddenly, almost as if on cue, there comes a point when these feelings of suffocation disappears and a new one filled with a mixture of sublime elation and tearful emotional mourning takes its place. With no one offering Bauby hope for the future he in turn found his own and nicknamed it the “butterfly,” and it is in these poignantly magical moments the film truly takes flight and becomes something remarkable. Memory and imagination were the writer’s wings and his own indomitable will was what allowed them to take flight, Schnabel using his own skills as filmmaker to bring all this wonderment to spectacular life. 

It goes without saying this is the director’s best work to date. With each successive feature Schnabel’s hand becomes more confident, much more self-assured, the auteur’s painterly eye perfectly suited to bring this uniquely rousing biographical journey to distinct one-of-a-kind fruition. Working in perfect symmetry with Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler’s List) Schnabel has achieved the miraculous, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly a monumental achievement people will surely be talking about for many years to come.

Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)

- review reprinted courtesy of the SGN in Seattle

Additional Links:

-  The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Theatrical Trailer