The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
A lately watched film has taken list of my favourite films by storm - “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (French: “Le Scaphandre et le Papillon”) by Julian Schnabel, with brilliant cinematography by Janusz Kamiński.
The screenplay is based on the memoir by French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby. Bauby, aged 42, an editor of the fashion magazine “Elle” sustained a massive stroke, which left him with a condition known as locked-in syndrome.
This is a moving and beautiful picture about a man whose perfectly clear conscious mind and energetic, lively personality have unexpectedly been imprisoned in his completely paralysed and disabled body that the author likened to the mentioned in the title diving bell. It is a disquieting thought that anyone of us could face a similar fate. The film portrays humanity put to one of the most extreme tests and Jean-Dominique Bauby coming to terms his tormented existence with which he was condemned for the rest of his life. Out of the darkest horror optimistic streaks of dawn emerge when he painstakingly manages to communicate with about 200,000 eyelid blinks his personal message to the world and his loved ones. The published book and the following film in a tremendously artistic way add something very valuable to our understanding of conditio humana.
Butterflies have flown away… but will return next summer.
See also: Metacritic.com and Rottentomatoes.com
