Spoiler alert. I do reveal a few details, but nothing that will ruin the movie.

Back in the late 1990s, a fellow newspaper reporter handed me a copy of Jean-Dominique Bauby's memoir "The Diving Bell and The Butterfly." It was absolutely riveting and hauntingly beautiful. As you read the book, you learn how it was written, which changes your perspective on every word, sentence and paragraph. You cannot help but consider what it would be like to experience Bauby's mental anguish at being trapped in your own body; thoughts of claustrophobic helplessness get seared into your mind.

When the movie came out in 2007, I was skepitcal (as I almost always am when great books are turned to films). While the memoir should be considered first in experiencing this story, the movie was a beautiful work of art that kept me glued to the screen. You cannot help but be moved by the narrative and superb acting. The cinematography of a stark but beautiful French seaside landscape plays perfectly against the protagonist's imprisonment from locked-in syndrome.

Some who knew Jean-Dominique Bauby, the editor of Elle magazine, have criticized the movie and script as portraying his lover -- Florence Ben Sadoun -- in an uncomplimentary light. Apparently, she never actually left his side throughout his ordeal. She is, however, all but airbrushed from the film. But, these are factual issues that have little bearing on the film itself, which deftly paints Bauby's misery and determination in the face of an unthinkable circumstances.

Along with Bauby's mental anguish at his physical plight being revealed at a simmering boil's pace are a number of moving flashbacks to before his paralization, such as Jean-Do’s shaving the face of Papinou, his frail, elderly father (played by the magnificant Max von Sydow). Jean-Do also flashes back to scences with his children and their mother, whom he never married, and other lovers, as he ponders the regrets of his life.

There is also a fascinating sub-plot involving a friend who is kidnapped by terrorists and is later released, and who visits Bauby after hearing of his stroke. The sub-plot is revealed so subtilely, that you're stunned when you realize it was a true story.

I've watched the movie three times since it came out, and each time I enjoy it as much as the first. I highly recommend it.

This movie made you come as close to feeling - through a film - what it feels like to be completely at another's mercy and to be trapped inside your broken body.
My son had cerebral palsy and never walked or talked. He couldn't scratch an itch, couldn't adjust his position in bed, couldn't eat, wipe a tear, reach for something he wanted...you get picture. He died early this year.
Watching this movie was painful for me because of my experience and enforced how strong people are that face these situations. It's a new normal for Jean-Dom (based on a true story) and he masters it as well as anyone could.
The actors nailed their performances. We empathize with Jean-Dom's initial reactions and the love his family shows for him. We cringe at the girlfriend's absence and hope that we would never be that shallow. Is that fair? I don't know.
I highly recommend this film. Be prepared for serious emotions.

Camera use and photography of what Jean Do sees is incredibly excellent.This is a powerful true life story that not one of us wold want yet somehow this incredibly courageous man found a purpose in what certainly would look like a no purpose life. Bravo Jean Do and Bravo Schnabel for making the film. maybe had I read the book I would not have found it so powerful and impactful, however, this is the first I had ever hear of this individual.

The most haunting movie I've ever seen. Great acting to say the least. The movie is filmed from the perspective of a palatalized man, making you experience the agony of his plight. However, in his heart wrenching misfortune he finds a way to express himself in a way he was never able to. This is a true story, I recommend it. Bon film!

I told my students about the book this is based on. They wanted to see the movie. thanks to Amazon, i was able to get the right copy (in French with English subtitles) for the FRE 101 class to enjoy. They were fairly riveted by the suffering, patience, and changes of the protagonist.

A very engrossing, captivating adaptation of the book. The true story of Bauby's journey after his stroke that left him "locked in" and the power of narrating illness. Beautifully filmed.

Overcoming adversity is a strong message with this true story.

Acting, editing, story, locations, color, style. Just see it. Not really the exactly true story but artistic license is forgiven.

This is a gem of a film that tells an amazing true story about the human will to keep living.

Life is filled with contingencies. We worry about them; they creep up on us; they challenge us and shape us. How people adapt to tragedy, however, can be a source of fascination and inspiration. One of the best things a film can do is to get us into others' shoes and show how their inner journey unfolds for them.

Such is the case of `The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,' based on the autobiographical account of Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Almaric), the editor for Frances' prestigious 'Elle' magazine. His account is one of adaptation. From a glamorous and prosperous playboy with a family, including, Ce'line (Emmannelle Se'igner) his long-suffering partner and mother of his three children, this jet-setter seemed to have everything going for him.

From the beginning of Julian Schnabel's directorial masterpiece we find our protagonist awakening in fits and blurs, discovering a brightly lit hospital room where he is gazed upon by doctors, nurses, and other personnel. We can tell he is disoriented, but we know his thoughts as they are narrated during the opening scenes. We quickly discover that he cannot speak, for he learns that his thoughts are not being received by anyone, yet he can hear what they're saying. Soon we have a serious meeting with a doctor who informs him that he has had a stroke and is paralyzed. The repercussions come quickly as he becomes dependent on people who bathe him and his choices seemingly diminish. We feel his discomfort as a fly sits upon his nose with no self-recourse and an attendant comes into his room to turn off a thoroughly absorbing game of soccer on TV. More unsettling is an early scene where fully conscious he watches a specialist sew stitches closing his right eye.

Soon Ce'line comes to visit, and he daily gets a therapist, Henrietta (Marie Jose' Croze) who teaches him to communicate, blinking once for "oui" and twice for "non" with his good left eye. For anyone this new life would be difficult, but for someone so independent in his chic life, it must have been excruciating. Using the blinking method, Bauby can choose the letters he wishes to convey as Henrietta dictates them close to his bed. Asking him what he wants, he chooses to let her spell out "D-E-A-T-H". Volumes of emotion are written on these wonderful actresses' faces as they convey their discomfort with Jean-Dominique. His lover is ambivalent. Certainly sympathetic about her lover's new condition, she also ponders the scars of disinterest that have marred her own life.

But like many tragedies, adjustment makes life better. Unable to have the mobility, Jean-Dominique learns to rely more on memories and imagination as his chief resources to make life meaningful and enriching. We see some truly poignant moments with his father (here played in a welcome performance by Max Von Sydow), whom he comforts by shaving. We also see flashbacks to times with his own family and times with his lover, including some ironic scenes when he went with her to Lourdes when he wasn`t seeking miracles in his own life.

Watching this film, I was reminded in a casual way of Fellini's `8 ½' where the flight of imagination is captured so concretely. His visions are captured beautifully by Schnabel and art director, Janusz Kaminski, who give us a visual feast of Bauby's memories and imagination. After 112 minutes I felt I had gone on the same journey, able to capture and understand a man whose life was a smorgasbord of sensual endeavors cut short by an inconvenient reality that had him rely on his inner resources to find meaning and solace when he was used to gathering it himself from the physical world. From being submerged and confined (as a diving bell), his imagination takes beauty and flight (the butterfly). In the end, 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly' is a beautiful true story told from a convincing point-of-view.

This was, by all accounts, a stunning film. The photography was sensitive, beautiful, evocative, as was the acting. Had I not read the book I would have loved it. But, I did read the book, and out of respect for a man who made an effort which can only be described as superhuman, I simply cannot recommend this film.

Jean-Dominigue Bauby, former editor-in-chief of Elle Magazine, was struck down in the prime of life by a massive stroke which left him completely paralyzed, but conscious. Personally, I cannot imagine a worse fate. Once he emerged from his coma, Bauby was faced with the knowledge that he was trapped inside the "diving bell", his own personal prison. It was only through the concerted efforts of his his inner circle of friends and his speech therapist, who devised a method through which he could communicate to the outside world by blinking his left eyelid, that Bauby was able to survive the horrors of his half life--and, indeed, overcome them.

Where the movie fails, and fails horribly, is in telling the truth. The movie version was clearly based primarily on input from Bauby's ex, the mother of his two children. (Why Schnabel felt compelled to add a third child is beyond me, as it added nothing to the story.) If you watch the film, you will weep at his ex's devotion, shudder at the rejection of his girlfriend, be touched by Bauby's deep remorse about how badly he treated his loyal ex--none of which conforms to reality.

The true story, the one you can read in Bauby's book, is far more touching. Bauby's "personal bodyguard", those who cared for him tenderly every day, did not include his ex, whom he only mentions once in his book. It did however, include his girlfriend, who certainly did not reject him, and in whose arms Bauby died. (It was clear from these distortions of reality that Bauby's ex had a vengeful streak.) But, more importantly, the most powerful loves of Bauby's life were his two children, with whom he shared a deeply loving relationship. (In one key scene from the book, unfortunately ommitted from the movie, Bauby's daughter climbs into his lap and repeats over and over again, "You are my daddy.")

Aside from maligning the people Bauby genuinely loved, the film also misprepresented Bauby himself. The author of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was not prone to self-pity. Not once did he express the desire to die. Nor did he have sexual fantasies about the women who were helping him. (French directors really need to give "cherchez la femme" a rest.) Instead, what Bauby wrote about, and what he has to offer the rest of us, was an indomitable spirit, a courage that defies words. Though he was trapped in the prison of his body, Bauby was able to draw upon the most poetic, the most profound insights in order to create a memoir that is honest without being self-indulgent.

Ultimately, I believe that the film did Bauby a grave injustice. Bauby went to such heroic lengths to communicate, the least Schnabel could have done would have been to respect the words Bauby labored so hard to produce. I would encourage everyone to read Bauby's memoir. It is deeply moving and much more inspiring than the film. And it's the real thing.

"Locked-in Syndrome", a fate worse than death afflicts Jean-Dominique Bauby in this true story of the final chapter of the remarkable life of the Elle editor and famous Parisian. With a healthy mind and a useless body, Bauby experiences the horror of only being able to communicate with the outside world by closing one functioning eyelid. Adding to his torturous existence is that Bauby's mind was meant to be shared with the world. As an author, editor and shining member of the intellectual elite, Bauby dazzled those who came in contact with him. When his body died, his great thoughts did not go away. He could not turn off his creativity, his dreams, his desires or his memories...he just had no way to share them.

The first half of "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" details the opening months of that living hell. One could not think of a worse existence than being in a hospital room with a TV turned to an off-air station during the overnight hours when it blares an alarm. With no way of changing the channel or asking for help, he suffers for what must have seemed like an eternity. His days are filled hating the sights of endless doctors, specialists and therapists, all motivated to help their "famous patient", hope not shared by Bauby. All he gains from these visits is an occasional cheap thrill as he's able to ogle one of the many young, Elle reading specialists who dote over him like a superstar.

Nearly all of these scenes are filmed from the POV of Bauby, with his internal thoughts providing sardonic commentary to the action in the hospital room. This provides an uncomfortable presentation, as the audience experiences the realities of his life and thoughts. Once a solution to his communication problem is presented and a system is developed where his eyelid movements spell out his words and thoughts, he's able to slowly (V e r y S l o w l y) communicate with the world again. What begins as a devastating declaration to his therapist of "I W a n t D e a t h" eventually grows into his memoirs. The book titled "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", penned at one blink at a time becomes his last gift to the world, a collection of his dreams, his regrets, and his loves.

Bauby's book is the work of a dying man dreaming about living again. Not angry or jealous, he wants one last chance to speak about the beauties of life, from the love of a great woman to dinner at Paris' finest restaurant. Scenes of his book are dramatized in the film and come across as strange Charlie Kaufman-like creations where images from his healthy life blend with his hospital setting and are often colored by stories from history or fairy tales. Dramatized on screen, the film gives the audience a glimpse into the most important organ of the human body, one that goes on dreaming, loving and hurting long after the rest of the body has given up on life.

I would have given this five stars if I hadn't found out that the true story was changed for no apparent reason. I understand the concept of embellishing things for dramatic effect, but that's not what happened in this case. It was just made different. Jean-Do's mistress was pretty much cut from the film, even though in reality, she's the one who stood by his side, not the "wife." I don't think of the French as being prudish when it comes to mistresses, so I'm astonished as to why this was changed. Did the producers/director think it would be less accepted by American audiences? It's a mystery. Very sad for the surviving lover to have seen this adulteration (no pun intended).

The film is very good, and I will not go into details since many reviewers have already done so very eloquently.
I will only point a few aspects, since many people think this is 100% a true story. For the most part it is, and some changes don't take anything away from the real story or the book. For example, in real life Jean-Do had 2 children but in the movie he had 3. In real life a chauffeur was driving him when he became ill. These changes are minor, and can enhance the drama developing on the screen. Like when Jean-Do says he wants to die. It's a powerful cinematic moment, but in real life it never happened.

I used to watch a TV show called History vs. Hollywood and love to learn about what the true story really is and what is presented on the screen. In this case, the relationship between Jean-Do and his girlfriend is totally butchered by Schnabel, and unfortunately -as is often the case- people take what they see on the screen to be the truth.
In real life, Jean-Do's girlfriend was by his side throughout his ordeal, and he actually died while she was holding his hand. I think that a more accurate portrayal of this relationship would have greatly enhanced the film. In contrast, the "mother of his children" seldom visited him at the hospital, and was in New York when Jean-Do died. She was a consultant for the film, and had a big influence on how some things were portrayed. This angered a few people who were close to jean-Do and know the true story.

[...]
So overall it is a very good movie that could have been better had it adhered closer to reality. I would give it 3.5 out of 5. As the saying goes, "don't judge a book by its movie."
Hopefully more people will become aware of what is real and what is fiction.

Based on a true story, remarkably, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a French film by an American director based on the memoir of Frenchman Jean-Dominique Bauby. Released in 2007, this film was one of the most highly acclaimed films of that particular year...In its own gentle way; I have no doubt that it was one of the best films of 2007. The script is by Ronald Harwood, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of The Pianist and while it's most certainly a terrific script, it's the style of the film that really trumps everything else.

Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) awakes to find he's paralyzed from head-to-toe and unable to speak. The doctor's tell him he has "locked-in syndrome," making him a prisoner in his own body. He is aware of his surroundings and is able to think perfectly clearly, but is unable to move anything except his left eye. As we learn about Bauby's life before the stroke that took his abilities to move or speak, we also watch as therapists develop a painstaking process for him to be able to communicate thoroughly using only his left eye. Obviously, Bauby would go on to write a book using this process which can imagine would take a superhuman amount of patience.

Amalric's performance is remarkable, a performance of both control and dedication. In flashbacks, Amalric is required to play a charming, successful young man and the paralyzed Bauby, he's not allowed much room for acting. Somehow, Amalric adds remarkable personality to his character. The great Max Von Sydow has a small, yet powerful role as Bauby's father and Emmanuelle Seigner brings a strong-willed female to the screen as the mother of Bauby's children.

When one simply gives a synopsis of the film, it sounds like a rather conventional "against all odds" type of story. Julian Schnabel deserves all the credit, as he has crafted a film that's not afraid to defy convention. Much of what we see in the film is directly from Bauby's perspective, which gives the film a unique visual feel but could have also become uncomfortable and detrimental to telling the story. Schnabel is no amateur and uses this style to educate, while never forgetting that he's telling a story that he should want an audience to sit through. With Schnabel at the helm of this picture, what could have been a semi-sequel to My Left Foot (entitled My Left Eye) is instead a moving, special film with moments that can only be described as cinematic poetry.

There's no film that I can think of that closely resembles this one. It's unique, beautiful, and has made a rather remarkable impression on me. Even those who are biased against foreign films (because reading sucks apparently) may find themselves unexpectedly enraptured by this one. It's visually stunning, poetic, and powerful with a life-affirming story at the heart of it.

GRADE: A-

I didn't rush to see this when it was in the theaters because I feared it would be too depressing. I was even reluctant to play the DVD and told myself I'd just start it and if it was too heavy I'd stop it. However I was engaged immediately and watched it intently till the end.

Yes, the subject is unbelievably difficult. It is a true story--no one would make anything like this up! And yet it is told in such a way that, if anything, it is inspiring. First I was very touched by the devotion of the staff--especially the three young women who help him with such passion and purity. They are all quite beautiful, too! Then, the mother of his children, who was no longer his lover, came and gave him the same type of love and care. Calling out the letters of the alphabet while watching his eye for a blink is a painstakingly slow process and certainly is a labor of love. She even transmitted his message to his lover, which was certainly a hard thing for her to do.

It was all of this amazing care that brought the spirit of the film up from being horribly depressing to one of hope. Yes, it was amazing that Bauby eventually came out of his hopelessness and self-pity to write the book---that is the main point of the story. But I haven't seen much comment on the love that was poured out on this man...from bouquets of roses, to a birthday party from the staff, to calls and cards and visits from friends and family. And, as another person commented, the quality of care from the French National Health Service bears notice; this was not a private clinic for the very wealthy--it was a public hospital. wow!

A couple of reviewers made the point that not enough of Bauby's pre-stroke life was shown and I do agree with that. We saw that he was a very successfuly bon vivant type, living the good life in Paris, but I do wonder about his character. The voice over said that he had failed to love any of the women he'd been with, although it was obvious that he got them to love him. Was he just superficial or a bit of a cad? Perhaps, since the film's script was drawn from Bauby's book, that aspect of the story was never told. Or maybe the film maker decided not to hit us over the head with it.

At any rate the story is an amazing one, certainly one that deserves to be told. And it was beautifully told in a way that avoids cheap sentimentality. I urge anyone who is interested in the human condition to see the film--it will be a rewarding experience.

(I read somewhere that Johnny Depp had been considered to play Dauby and I think that he would have been a great improvement over the French actor.)

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" is yet another 2007 film that fails to live up to the hype. Don't get me wrong, this is a good film but not a great one.

Of course, there are some good moments in the film: 1) the phone call from the mistress when the wife is present is a very moving scene. 2) Father's Day with his children on the beach. 3) Of course, Max von Sydow was excellent and his call to his son was very cathartic, one of the best moments in the film.

Now for the criticisms. For one thing, the filmmmaking is rather clumsy. For example, the image of the deep-sea diving suit is used not once but at least a half-dozen times throughout the movie. The metaphor is not that interesting to warrant the constant reprise of this image. Indeed, all of the visualizations of the title seem rather uninspired and bland - butterflies flying around and a deep-sea diving suit. Basically, it's just making a visual equation of the title - a very easy thing to do. My problem is that the image didn't give birth to the title, but the other way around, which makes it stupid to use it over and over.

In fact, there is little to this movie beyond the title, which provides the basic metaphor of the film. Although weighed down by his physical parlysis, Bauby is still able to reach great artistic heights due to the exercise of his imagination. In fact, the film feels the need to have Bauby's amanuensis Celine essentially state the titular metaphor of the film: "You are my diving bell but also my butterfly" - something like that. All of this is rather heavy-handed and obvious.

As far as the film bridging the subjective and objective, this only amounts to the tired technique of the camera acting as the character's eyes with voiceover. It is well-handled in this film and doesn't plumb the depths of the laughable voiceover work as "Awake" did. But still, there is nothing very original or daring about all this.

Now, I've never read the book, but I hardly intend to. And I wouldn't say the film is not moving in a general sense, as are most films of its kind. However, it has nothing to offer that other such films about struggles against physical adversity don't. Essentially, it is an embodied cliche, the familiar storyline of the physically challenged person first expressing anger/pity at his state and then sublimating their sufering through imagination/creation. Only the details have been changed. Just to compare, I think "My Left Foot" is a much better film, more moving in its portrayal of a caring family and reaching a deeper emotional state of the protagonist, whose emotions don't seem as perfunctory as in this film. (For instance, Bauby states at one point "I no longer pity myself" - a rather too pat turnaround for his character I thought and just too straightforward an observation to ring true).

Listening to the director Schnagel talk on the bonus features was painful. Like ever other filmmaker, his film addresses the profound questions of life and death. Oh gee, what a surprise. "It was essentially a self-help exercise to help me overcome the fear of death." (Sounds like a solipsistic exercise.) "I'm not a filmmmaker - I'm a painter." Well, I can believe the last one, because this is not that well-directed of a film. I feel like it could have been better. (Schnagel's pontifications reminded me of Werner Herzog's observation that whenever filmmakers talk about their work it is embarrasing and undignified, whereas an ordinary person always seems to retain his dignity before the camera.)

Don't get me wrong: I respect Bauby, but the film does not seem to do his story justice. For example, despite their screen time together, Bauby and Celine's relationship is actually not explored that deeply when you think about it. The movie dwells on the surface and never really addresses the deep questions that it professes to, unlike the work of truly masterful filmmakers like Bergman and Kieslowski, to name just two.

But, of course, this is just my opinion, and I'm sure many of you will disagree.

Incredible true story. A terrible event (a stroke) leaves this man completely paralyzed from the neck down except for his eyes. I feel lucky that he left us his story as a book and now we can also see it on the screen. He had sense of humor at times so you laugh at times. His personal love life before his stroke was also messy and this is what makes the story even more interesting.

What a magnificent film! It is almost a cliche to talk about the triumph of the human spirit over adversity, but here it is, in frame after frame, but without any sense that the director and screewriter are being didactic and pounding home a message. The credit for adapting this film should go to both writer Ronald Harwood and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who bring to cinematic life a very cerebral story. The voice-over narrative, which can be so annoying in so many films, becomes an aspect of the character, giving us Bauby's perspective of being locked in - perfectly capable of thinking but completely incapable of verbally expressing those thoughts, except by blinking. Schanbel and Harwood could have "cheated" - prsenting Bauby as the victim of a stroke and then using flashbacks to show the events leading up to the stroke, but they take the much more difficult approach of keeping the film rooted in the present and dealing cinematically with the handicap, making spare use of flashbacks effectively. This is particularly true of the flashback involving Bauby's father (the great Max von Sydow), which sets the tone for the heart-wrenching scene in which the father, an invalid confined to his apartment calls the son, an invalid confined to the hospital. For those who do not like to read subtitles, rent the film and watch it in the dubbed English version, but do not miss it.

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"(2007) is directed by Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls), and tells the biographical story based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's novel of the same name. Bauby had a massive stroke at the age of 43 which left him with a condition called locked-in syndrome which paralyzed him from the neck down. This condition left him with only his left eye from which he could blink in order to communicate with the outside world.

The acting is excellent in this movie with Bauby played by Mathiew Amalric, his wife by Emmanuelle Seigner (from Roman Polanski's "Bitter Mood"), his speech therapist played by Marie Josee Croze (from the "Barbarian Invasions"), and his father by Max von Sydow. This movie is inspirational and sad but also represented with humour as Bauby's imagination lifts him beyond the confines of his body.

The DVD has an excellent transfer and comes with a number of special features including The Making of the Diving Bell and the Butterfly (12m), a Cinematic Vision (7m), a Charlie Rose interview with Julian Schnabel (20m), and audio commentary with the director.