| The Diving Bell and the Butterfly | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| French | Le scaphandre et le papillon |
| Directed by | Julian Schnabel |
| Screenplay by | Ronald Harwood |
| Based on | The Diving Bell and the Butterfly byJean-Dominique Bauby |
| Produced by | Kathleen Kennedy Jon Kilik |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Janusz Kamiński |
| Edited by | Juliette Welfling |
| Music by | Paul Cantelon |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Pathé Distribution (France/United Kingdom) Miramax Films (United States) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 112 minutes |
| Countries | France United States |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $12.8 million[1] |
| Box office | $19.8 million[2] |
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (French:Le Scaphandre et le Papillon) is a 2007biographicaldrama film directed byJulian Schnabel and written byRonald Harwood. Based onJean-Dominique Bauby's1997 memoir, the film depicts Bauby's life after he suffered a massivestroke that left him with a condition known aslocked-in syndrome. Bauby is played byMathieu Amalric.
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won awards at theCannes Film Festival, theGolden Globes, theBAFTAs, and theCésar Awards, and received fourOscar nominations. Several critics later listed it as one of the best films of its decade.[3] It ranks inBBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century.
The first third of the film is told from the main character's, Jean-Dominique Bauby, or Jean-Do as his friends call him, first person perspective. The film opens as Bauby wakes from his three-week coma in a hospital inBerck-sur-Mer,France. After an initial falsely positive description from one doctor, aneurologist explains that Bauby haslocked-in syndrome, an extremely rare condition in which the patient is almost completely physically paralyzed, but remains mentally unchanged. At first, the viewer primarily hears Bauby's "thoughts" (he thinks that he is speaking but no one hears him), which are inaccessible to the other characters (who are seen through his one functioning eye).
A speech therapist and physical therapist try to help Bauby become as functional as possible. Bauby cannot speak, but he develops asystem of communication involving blinking his left eye as his therapist reads a list of letters; with this process, Bauby spells out messages one letter at a time.
Gradually, the film's restricted point of view widens, and the viewer begins to see Bauby through scenes from his past as well as via the perspectives of those around him. The film shows a visit toLourdes and conveys Bauby's fantasies about beaches, mountains, theEmpress Eugénie and an erotic feast with one of his transcriptionists. We learn that Bauby had been editor of the popular French fashion magazineElle, and that he had a deal to write a book reimaginingThe Count of Monte Cristo from a female perspective. He decides that he will still write a book, using his slow and exhausting communication technique. A woman from the publishing house with which Bauby had the original book contract takes dictation.
The new book describes his current life, trapped in his body, which he sees as being suspended in murky water within an old-fashioned deep-sea diving bell with brass helmet, which is called ascaphandre in French. But those around him describe his still-vibrant spirit as a butterfly.
The story of Bauby's writing is juxtaposed with his recollections and regrets prior to his stroke. We see his three children, their mother, his mistress, his friends, and his father. He encounters people from his past whose lives bear similarities to his own "entrapment": a friend who was kidnapped inBeirut and held in solitary confinement for four years, and his own 92-year-old father, who is confined to his own apartment, because he is too frail to descend four flights of stairs.
Bauby eventually completes his memoir and hears the critics' responses. He dies ofpneumonia ten days after its publication.[4][5][6] The closing credits are accentuated by reversed shootings of breakingglacier ice (the forward versions are used in the opening credits), accompanied by theJoe Strummer & the Mescaleros song "Ramshackle Day Parade".
The film was originally to be produced by American companyUniversal Studios and the screenplay was originally in English, withJohnny Depp slated to star as Bauby. According to the screenwriter,Ronald Harwood, the choice of Julian Schnabel as director was recommended by Depp. Universal subsequently withdrew, andPathé took up the project two years later. Depp dropped the project due to scheduling conflicts withPirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.[7] Schnabel remained as director. The film was eventually produced byPathé andFrance 3 Cinéma in association with Banque Populaire Images 7 and the AmericanKennedy/Marshall Company and in participation withStudioCanal andCinéCinéma.[8]
According to theNew York Sun, Schnabel insisted that the movie should be in French, resisting pressure by the production company to make it in English, believing that the rich language of the book would work better in the original French, and even went so far as to learn French to make the film.[9] Harwood tells a slightly different story: Pathé wanted "to make the movie in both English and French, which is why bilingual actors were cast"; he continues that "Everyone secretly knew that two versions would be impossibly expensive", and that "Schnabel decided it should be made in French".[10]
Schnabel said his influence for the film was drawn from personal experience:
My father got sick and he was dying. He was terrified of death and had never been sick in his life. So he was in this bed at my house, he was staying with me, and this script arrived forThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly. As my father was dying, I read Ron Harwood's script. It gave me a bunch of parameters that would make a film have a totally different structure. As a painter, as someone who doesn't want to make a painting that looks like the last one I made, I thought it was a really good palette. So personally and artistically these things all came together.[11]
Several key aspects of Bauby's personal life were fictionalized in the film, most notably his relationships with the mother of his children and his girlfriend.[12][13] In reality, it was not Bauby's estranged girlfriend who stayed with him while he lay almost inanimate on a hospital bed, it was his girlfriend of several years.[13]
The film received universal acclaim from critics. Review aggregation websiteRotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 94%, based on reviews from 176 critics, and an average rating of 8.30/10, with the general consensus stated as, "Breathtaking visuals and dynamic performances makeThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly a powerful biopic."[14]Metacritic gave the film an average score of 92/100, based on 36 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[15]
In a 2016 poll byBBC, the film was listed as one of the top 100 films since 2000 (77th position).[16]
In 2024,Looper ranked it number 13 on its list of the "50 Best PG-13 Movies of All Time," writing "The restrictive nature of [Jean-Dominique] Bauby's condition could have daunted other filmmakers, but director Julian Schnabel managed to figure out the tiniest ways to convey this man's interior world. Though Bauby may have thought his life was over once he was paralyzed, the critically-praised film ofThe Diving Bell and the Butterfly shows how truly alive this man's spirit was in the face of adversity."[17]
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[18]
It was nominated for fourAcademy Awards, but because the film was produced by an American company, it was ineligible for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
