Taglines: Let your imagination set you free.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Forty-three year old Elle magazine editor Jean-Dominique Bauby – Jean-Do to his friends – awakens not knowing where he is. He is in a Berck-sur-Mer hospital, where he has been for the past several weeks in a coma after suffering a massive stroke. Although his cognitive facilities are in tact, he quickly learns that he has what is called locked-in syndrome which has resulted in him being almost completely paralyzed, including not being able to speak.
One of his few functioning muscles is his left eye. His physical situation and hospitalization uncomfortably bring together the many people in his life, including: Céline Desmoulins, his ex-lover and mother of his children; Inès, his current lover; and his aged father who he calls Papinou. Among his compassionate recuperative team are his physical therapist Marie, and his speech therapist Henriette.
Henriette eventually teaches him to communicate using a system where he spells out words: she reads out the letters of the alphabet in descending order of their use in the French language, and he blinks his functioning left eye when she reaches the appropriate letter. Although frustrating at start, he learns to communicate effectively but slowly using this method, so much so that with the help of Claude, a full time translator, he decides on the monumental and seemingly impossible task to keep to his pre-injury commitment of writing a book, changing its focus to life in his current state.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (French: Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) is a 2007 biographical drama film directed by Julian Schnabel and written by Ronald Harwood. Based on Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir of the same name, the film depicts Bauby’s life after suffering a massive stroke that left him with a condition known as locked-in syndrome. Bauby is played by Mathieu Amalric.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won awards at the Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globes, the BAFTAs, and the César Awards, and received four Academy Award nominations. Several critics later listed it as one of the best films of its decade. It ranks in BBC’s 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
Directed by: Julian Schnabel
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze, Anne Consigny, Marina Hands, Max von Sydow, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Fiorella Campanella, Talina Boyaci
Screenplay by: Ronald Harwood
Production Design by: Michel Eric, Laurent Ott
Cinematography by: Janusz Kaminski
Film Editing by: Juliette Welfling
Costume Design by: Olivier Bériot
Music by: Paul Cantelon
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for nudity, sexual content and some language.
Distributed by: Miramax Films
Release Date: November 30, 2007
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