Schnabel's "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" explores the beauty of the human spirit

“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” is a visual gem that accomplishes a rare filmic feat of pulling in the audience and involving us in a very real and visceral experience. Everything about this movie touched a sense in me, starting with the first 10 minutes – a difficult foray into the lead character’s realization that he has just come out of a coma. The screen is filled with distorted lights and bright blurry images and creates an unsettling disorientation of images that further pull us into this new world.

The story paints the painful journey of journalist and French Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby who, at 42, was left largely paralyzed with a rare condition called “locked-in syndrome”, following a stroke. The results prove frustrating for the young Bauby, as it does to the viewer, since the beginning of the film is largely seen through his perspective. The uniqueness of his condition are that two things are not paralyzed – his imagination and his memory. In fact, Bauby’s mind is still very much everything it ever was, and the only way he can communicate is through one good eye. Through the assistance of a speech therapist, he learns to not only communicate in this way, but he writes the entire book off which the film is based.

This movie had me on the verge of tears as well as on the brink of laughter. Julian Schnabel’s superb artistic eye and direction could not have found a better subject or a better screenplay for the material. It works superbly here, whereas I didn’t find it as effective in his film “Before Night Falls” which starred Javier Bardem.

The film is also perfect in French, and I fell in love with the language doubly because of the tactile quality of the film. The actor who portrays Bauby has a beautiful three-dimensional honey thick voice that begs camaraderie and empathy.

Go see this movie – Jean-Dominique Bauby’s story is a testament to the unwavering will of the human spirit and an intense yet beautiful examination into what makes us all human. I felt his experience in my bones. Please go see this movie, instead of some crap playing to the fears of another terrorized New York City. Trust me.