The North American artist and director, Julian Schnabel, and his cinematographer, Janusz Kaminski have moved away from a
hospital/disabled drama to an art house rendering of what it means to be human in the case of Dominique Bauby’s memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Bauby led a full life as editor of the French Elle magazine when at the age of 43 he suffered severe stroke that left him paralysed except for the ability to blink his left eye. Schnabel shows the world through the eye of Bauby whose thoughts cinema goers can hear. When Bauby blinks the camera blinks providing a harrowing intimacy.
Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) wakes up in hospital to be told he suffers from ‘locked-in-
syndrome’, the film captures his utter helplessness and tedium. It is like being buried alive except his body is the casket. His speech therapist, Henriette (Marie-Jose Croze) teaches him to communicate with the world by reciting to him a special alphabet, at which he can blink when the chosen letter is reached. He dictates an entire book on his condition through
blinking. He finds freedom in memory and imagination.
Bauby was cavalier enough to dump his wife for his mistress. Bauby’s wife (Emmanuelle Seigner) was obliged to listen to his mistress speaking on the phone to him in hospital and then translating his response.
Stroke must be re-examined. Many stroke victims have fully active brains in paralysed bodies. Many victims could benefit from speech therapy.