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Mathieu Amalric is best known to American audiences as the Frenchman who helped the Israelis locate the perpetrators of the Olympics massacre in Munich. Here he delivers a masterful performance almost without moving a muscle. Given that it is half way through the film before we even see his face clearly, Amalric has only voice to spin this world into existence. Later, when we move beyond his POV, Amalric is nonetheless every bit as restricted as his body and face cannot possibly register any of the emotion he so vividly feels.

Anne Cosigny as Claude, Bauby's patient transcriber

With only a few exceptions, Bauby is completely surrounded by women. From his angelic physical therapists, his common-law wife Céline (Emmanuelle Seigner), the serene and unwearied Claude, and flashbacks involving his mistress Joséphine (Marina Hands), Bauby flirts with his pretty nursemaids from the confines of his own mind. He takes pleasure in glimpsing their low-cut blouses or skirts waving seductively in the sea breeze. These moments are never pornographic and do not represent anything particularly carnal—they are representations of his ability to be and feel human despite the fact that he can neither show his attraction nor act on it if he could. (In a particularly wrenching scene, Joséphine, who cannot bear to see her lover in his disfigured state and has not contacted him since the accident, calls on the telephone and it is the faithful Céline who must battle through her own agony to act as the translator between the two.)

At first glance, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which won Schnabel the best director prize at Cannes, appears unfilmable. However, not only did Schnabel and writer Harwood devise a way around the practical and technical limitations of the script, they also took what could have been a story steeped in nightmare and spun it into something that floats on the delicate, gossamer wings of unflinching honesty. That they did all this without once allowing the film to degrade into false uplift and schmaltzy "triumph of the human will" sentimentality is a feat of filmmaking and an extraordinary tribute to Bauby's life.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly reveals that the human capacity for life, for love, and even for joy is not dependent on circumstances or even physical limitations, but is embedded in something far deeper and far more spiritual—a profound and primal realization that a human life is not the things we own or the jobs we have, but the people we love, the memories we share, and the obstacles we surmount together.

Talk About It

1. How do you think you would have reacted if such a thing happened to you—completely paralyzed except for usage of one eye? How might something like that affect your faith?
2. Where is God when life seems unfair, or when tragic events occur that we cannot explain? Is it possible to still see his hand at work? Talk about a time when that has happened in your life.
3. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly reveals that Bauby was not the most honorable of men before his accident. Do you feel that his redemption, in the form of his memoir, is satisfactory?
4. Compare the message of this film to 2004's euthanasia-themed The Sea Inside. What makes the films so different?

The Family Corner

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is rated PG-13 for nudity, sexual content and some language. While there is no violence and little language, there are a few, brief moments that may give some pause. The film contains references to adultery, and shows partial male, non-sexual nudity (Bauby being bathed by hospital personnel) and a non-graphic sexual encounter that involves upper-female nudity.

Photos © Copyright Miramax

© Brandon Fibbs subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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