Le Scaphandre et le Papillon

I am moved by the movie Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly). Breath-taking scenes, real emotion, funny, innovative film technique, sad, moving... As I try to describe it, I fall into the very cliches that the movie somehow (gloriously) avoids.

The story is of the bon vivant editor of Elle magazine, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffers a stroke. He survives with his mind entirely intact but can only move, and blink, one eye. He incredibly uses this one movement to communicate his expansive inner world and dictates a beautiful book.

"Through the frayed curtain at my window, a wan glow announces the break of day. My heels hurt, my head weighs a ton, and something like a giant invisible cocoon holds my whole body prisoner."

Contrary to the cocoon of his body, we get a peek of his illimitable imagination and memories.

"My diving bell becomes less oppressive, and my mind takes flight like a butterfly. There is so much to do. You can wander off in space or in time, set out for Tierra del Fuego or for King Midas's court. You can visit the woman you love, slide down beside her and stroke her still-sleeping face. You can build castles in Spain, steal the Golden Fleece, discover Atlantis, realize your childhood dreams and adult ambitions."

How do you make a movie of a man who cannot move or talk without placing a camera in his room and showing a man in his bed? Even artful placement? This movie does so by putting you in his place. The camera work, direction and editing are ingenious. You, the viewer, are and understand the man.

Another great accomplishment of the movie is that it compellingly (authentically) urges me to live in the moment.

"My life was a string of near-misses. The women I was unable to love, the chances of joy I let drift away… a race whose result I knew beforehand, but failed to bet on the winner."

I fear I make it sound nauseatingly regretful; it's not. It's a rare report back from the edge of life by a brilliant mind that was sharpened by the latest near miss, and delivered to us by an expert film artist.