Julian Schnabel's latest portrayal of the life of a famous artist examines the process whereby Jean-Dominque Bauby wrote his novel The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon). In the opening moments, Janusz Kaminski's delicate cinematography brilliantly accentuates life through the eyes of a paralyzed man who wakes up to discover he can think, hear, and understand, but cannot move or speak. Diagnosed with locked-in syndrome, Jean-Dominque (Mathieu Amalric) suffers in the immediate aftermath but quickly learns to use his imagination to revitalize his life. A speech therapist helps him to express himself with the aid of a linguistic technique whereby she recites the letters of the alphabet and he blinks whenever the letter uttered corresponds to that for which he is searching. By engaging in this process, Jean-Dominque is able to communicate with the outside world and produce his first novel, a testament to the strength and endurance of the human spirit.
There were several points during the last 40 minutes where Diving Bell could have concluded successfully, and this feature was likely deliberately stitched into the narrative, symbolically highlighting the fact that Bauby's novel (and life) could have ended at many points had his intransigent imagination not held true to his vision. Certainly sad, definitely daunting, if a paralyzed man who can only communicate with the movement of his right eye can manifest his chef d'oeuvre, anyone can. All it requires, is a little less self-pity, and a little more self-realization.
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