Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a film unlike anything you've ever seen before. It's grounded in the riveting tale of Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, (played here by Mathieu Amalric) who suffered a massive stroke and spent the rest of his life completely paralyzed. He learns to communicate through a system that involves only blinking and with this technique he dictated the autobiographical book upon which this film is based.The movie is so much more than a biopic though. It's a study of life and all its complexities. It traps us inside the mind of an immobile man and at the same time opens us up to the world of his imagination, giving us the single most complete and internal portrait of a character that I've ever seen. In cutting to the heart of Bauby's essence, the film scratches at grand truths. Bauby is the vessel through which it reflects us all. The human condition comes alive with soaring visual stylization courtesy of Schnabel and biting wit courtesy of screenwriter Ronald Harwood (and no doubt Bauby's own personality). There are events here that simply have never been portrayed before as this is something of a novel film subject. And even amongst the pantheon of films of this sort, and even in the broader range of all films about dealing with disabilities, there has probably never been one so genuinely full of life, capable of being as snarky and surreal as it wishes without ever losing sight of its pure, emotional but unsentimental core.
This is a modern masterpiece and one of the finest films all year. It is as effortlessly assembled as it is utterly alive in a way most films only dream of being. Its floating camera and dreamy photography feel likea dream upon waking and when mixed with the starkly filmed reality of Bauby's harrowing condition they add up to a moving portrait of man's search to escape himself.
Grade: A
