Here’s my guide to ‘The Diving Bell And The Butterfly’…this is an extremely confronting experience. It is by no means easy to sit through it. Before you go in, I found myself having to make a contract to myself that I would hang in there for the whole film. It was so tempting to exit, stage left, as it were.
The film tells the story of a middle-aged frenchman, an editor of a leading fashion magazine, who is struck down with a major stroke, that leaves him paralysed except for the sight from one eye. The film is told from his viewpoint, and sometimes what we see on screen is what he sees, in all its blurred vision, through his one eye.
For all this darkness, ‘The Diving Bell and The Butterfly’ is a rewarding experience. We witness, through cinema, a story of human possibility and achievement. Because this guy, with the help of hospital rehabilitation staff, writes a book of his experience, with the title name, thereby fulfulling an existing book contract that he had with a book publisher.
He does this by a simple but totally laborious method. The speech therapist goes through the alphabet and he chooses a letter by blinking at the appropriate time, letter by letter, word after word. And his general way of communicating; one blink means no, two blinks meant yes.
The man died some eight days after his book was published. This was a stunning film, lovingly performed and directed. A must see if you can sit through it!
